EFMB

Joe was able to take 10 days off from work when Amelia was born, which was so nice because he was able to be off work the whole time my parents were in town, and for a few more days after they left. It was great to have him around to take care of Madeline while I was taking care of the baby.

The day he had to go back to work he started working towards getting his Expert Field Medical Badge. This is a very prestigious badge for soldiers in the medical community of the Army. Basically, it gives soldiers more credibility as a medical soldier because only a small percentage of medical soldiers have this badge. It required him to stay on post for the duration of the exams, which took 2 weeks. I think it was actually a good thing that he stayed out there because he was only getting a few hours of sleep a night anyway, and he was spending hours and hours a day studying. We probably would have just distracted him.

In order to qualify for the EFMB, he had to successfully complete the following:

• Day land navigation
• Night land navigation
• Written Exam
• 3 Medical Lanes requiring him to demonstrate his abilities to treat patients in a combat zone
• 12 mile ruck march with roughly 50 pounds of gear in 3 hours or less

I knew the land navigation would be no problem for him because they practiced that a ton in college, and the ruck march would be hard but there was no doubt he could do it. The written exam and the lanes were extremely difficult though. One of the lanes had over 200 steps to memorize and perform in order. You get 2 chances for the written exam, but only one shot at everything else.

The pass rate for the EFMB is about 15%. Some people don't pass until they have gone through 5-7 attempts. Out of this group of 150+ soldiers, only 16 were awarded the EFMB, and Joe was one of them. At the award ceremony the Commanding General of Ft. Drum gave a speech in which he said he believes the EFMB is the most difficult of all the badges to earn in the Army. Needless to say, we are so proud of him for working so hard and passing on his first try. He is great at his job, and truly can do anything he sets his mind to.

Here are the group of soldiers who earned their EFMB. Soldiers are sent from posts all over the country to try to earn the badge, so some of these soldiers are not from Ft. Drum. Joe is the second one from left in the second row.

They came to the award ceremony directly after the ruck march, so Joe's face was all dirty. Madeline refused to give him a hug and kiss because she kept saying he needed a bath. She was excited to see him though. As they were standing on the stage and it was silent, she started waving to him. He smiled at her, but obviously couldn't wave back so she thought she would further try to get his attention by shouting out "Hi, Daddy!" Luckily she is still young enough that everyone thought it was cute and not annoying.


These are some of Joe's good friends from work. The guy on the far right was Joe's roommate during the course and they really worked together studying and encouraging each other - and they both passed! Congratulations to both of them.