APPLICANT REQUESTS:  In effect, award of the Combat Infantryman Badge (CIB) for himself and the other members of Company C, 41st Armored Infantry and 47th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division for their participation in Operation Torch from 8 - 11 November, 1942.  (NOTE:  The Board will only address the applicant’s own request, since no applications have been received from the other individuals.)

APPLICANT STATES:  In effect, that he went ashore under fire in North Africa during Operation Torch.  He feels he deserves the CIB for his efforts and sacrifices.

COUNSEL CONTENDS:  Counsel makes no statement.

EVIDENCE OF RECORD:  The applicant’s military records were lost or destroyed in the National Personnel Records Center fire of 1973.  Information herein was obtained from alternate sources.

The applicant was inducted into the Army on 20 June 1942.  He is credited with foreign service from 22 October 1942 to 16 August 1943 and for participation in the North African invasion, Operation Torch.  His service record, WD AGO Form 24, shows his specialty as 675 (Messenger).  His discharge certificate shows his specialty as “Messenger-Company (Not Signal Corps).”  One supporting document he submits states, “…it was not until then that I was able to assume my assignment as Company Messenger….”

Army Regulation 600-8-22 provides, in pertinent part, for the award of the Combat Infantryman Badge to a soldier who is an infantryman satisfactorily performing infantry duties, who is assigned to an infantry unit during such time as the unit is engaged in active ground combat, and must actively participate in such ground combat.  The award was established to provide special recognition of the unique role of the Army infantryman, the only soldier whose daily mission is to close with and destroy the enemy and to seize and hold terrain.  Campaign or battle credit alone is not sufficient for award of the CIB.

DISCUSSION:  Considering all the evidence, allegations and information presented by the applicant, together with the evidence or record, applicable law and regulations, it is concluded:

1.  The available records do not show and the applicant has not provided any convincing evidence to demonstrate that his is entitled to award of the Combat Infantryman Badge.  
2.  In order to justify correction of a military record the applicant must show to the satisfaction of the Board, or it must otherwise satisfactorily appear, that the record is in error or unjust.  The applicant has failed to submit evidence that would satisfy the aforementioned requirement.  This Board recognizes that the applicant was involved in some ferocious fighting, but by his own statement, he was not an infantryman.  Therefore, he does not meet the criteria of being an infantryman satisfactorily performing infantry duties.

3.  In view of the foregoing, there appears to be no basis for granting the applicant’s request.

DETERMINATION:  The applicant has failed to submit sufficient relevant evidence to demonstrate the existence of probable error or injustice.

BOARD VOTE:

                       GRANT 

                       GRANT FORMAL HEARING

                       DENY APPLICATION

                          Loren G. Harrell
    Director