PROCEEDINGS

	IN THE CASE OF:       

	BOARD DATE:           14 August 2001                  
	DOCKET NUMBER:   AR2000050597

	I certify that hereinafter is recorded the true and complete record of the proceedings of the Army Board for Correction of Military Records in the case of the above-named individual.  

	Mr. Carl W. S. Chun		Director	
	Mr. W. W. Osborn, Jr.		Analyst	

  The following members, a quorum, were present:

	Mr. Walter T. Morrison		Chairperson	
	Mr. Ronald E. Blakely		Member	
	Mr. Joe R. Schroeder		Member	

	The applicant and counsel if any, did not appear before the Board.

	The Board considered the following evidence:

	Exhibit A - Application for correction of military 
                records
	Exhibit B - Military Personnel Records (including
	            advisory opinion, if any)

FINDINGS:

1.  The applicant has exhausted or the Board has waived the requirement for exhaustion of all administrative remedies afforded by existing law or regulations.

2. Applicant requests reconsideration of his previous application to correct his military records by awarding him the Combat Infantryman Badge (CIB).

3.  The applicant relates that, although he was trained as a refrigeration repairman, upon arriving in Korea he was assigned as a machine gunner in G Company, 23rd. Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division.  He submits copies of a the unit morning report and portions of the Surgeon General’s Office Hospital Admissions Files (SGO Files) to substantiate his case. 

4.  The Memorandum of Consideration of the Board’s 10 May 2000 review of his request (AR2000035615) is incorporated herein by reference as if wholly set forth.

5.  The morning report shows that the applicant was wounded, on 13 March 1951, while attached to G Company, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. The applicable SGO page shows that, upon admission to the hospital, the applicant was identified as a member of the Infantry Branch. 

6.  A health record research project, commonly referred to as the "SGO Files", involved transposing the hospital admission card data from the periods of World War II and the Korean conflict onto magnetic tape.  In 1988 the National Research Council made these tape files available to the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC).  The availability of the information to the NPRC received considerable publicity by the various veteran service organizations.  It was widely believed that these tapes would become a valuable substitute for the records lost in the NPRC fire of 1973.  It is estimated that the SGO files document 95 percent of all hospitalized battle casualties from World War II and the Korean War.

7.  Army Regulation 600-8-22 prescribes Army policy and procedures concerning awards.  Paragraph 8-6 provides for award of the CIB.  That paragraph states that there are basically three requirements for award of the CIB.  The soldier must be an infantryman satisfactorily performing infantry duties, he must be assigned to an infantry unit during such time as the unit is engaged in active ground combat, and he must actively participate in such ground combat.  Specific requirements state, in effect, that an Army enlisted soldier must have an infantry specialty, and have satisfactorily performed duty while assigned or attached as a member of an infantry unit of brigade, regimental, or smaller size during any period such unit was engaged in active ground combat.  A recipient must be personally present and under hostile fire while serving in an assigned infantry primary duty, in a unit actively engaged in ground combat with the enemy.

8.  A search of the National Archives was conducted in an attempt to locate documents that would illuminate the case.  There are no available general orders files for the applicant’s regiment.  However, the Staff Duty Journal shows that, on the day the applicant was wounded, G Company’s only hostile involvement occurred while actively on patrol. 

CONCLUSIONS:

1.  There is no available documentation to show that the applicant was awarded either an infantry military occupational specialty (MOS) or the CIB.  However, it is unlikely that at this critical early phase of the Korean War he would have been assigned to an infantry company in anything other than an infantry position.  

2.  The available records show that the applicant was wounded while on an active infantry patrol with the infantry company to which he was attached.  Furthermore, he was identified as an infantryman when he was evacuated from the field. 

3.  The Board concludes that the applicant is entitled to the CIB.

4.  In view of the foregoing findings and conclusions, correcting  the applicant’s records as recommended below would rectify an injustice.

RECOMMENDATION:

That all of the Department of the Army records related to this case be corrected by showing the individual concerned was awarded a secondary MOS as an infantryman and the CIB.                   

BOARD VOTE:

__WTM__  ________  ________  GRANT AS STATED IN RECOMMENDATION

________  ________  ________  GRANT FORMAL HEARING

________  ___JRS__  __REB__  DENY APPLICATION

		_   _Walter T. Morrison______
		        CHAIRPERSON

INDEX

CASE ID	AR2000050597	
SUFFIX		
RECON		
DATE BOARDED	20010814	
TYPE OF DISCHARGE		
DATE OF DISCHARGE		
DISCHARGE AUTHORITY		
DISCHARGE REASON		
BOARD DECISION	GRANT	
REVIEW AUTHORITY		
ISSUES         1.	107.00	
2.		
3.		
4.		
5.		
6.