JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. – More than 300 military medical personnel from Joint Base Lewis-McChord will attempt to earn the Expert Field Medical Badge during testing this week at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
Created in 1965, the EFMB is a special skill award to recognize exceptional competence and outstanding performance by field medical personnel.
Candidates’ professional competence and physical endurance is tested by a series of events, requiring the individual to demonstrate a high-degree of proficiency in both military and medical skills.
In addition to achieving required scores in the Army Physical Fitness Test, basic rifle marksmanship, and day-and-night land navigation events, medics must complete numerous combat casualty care and evacuation tasks—often under simulated combat conditions.
“The EFMB is the utmost challenge to the professional competence and physical endurance of the soldier medic… while the Combat Medical Badge is the “portrait of courage” in wartime, the Expert Field Medical Badge is undoubtedly the “portrait of excellence,” (U.S. Army Medical Dept. website: www.cs.amedd.army.mil/details.aspx?dt=179).
Historically, only 15 percent of all candidates who attempt testing successfully complete all of the events required to be awarded the EFMB.