text: The only Qualification for the CIB is that you be an Infantry Soldier in an Infantry Unit At Brigade level or below in a combat zone.  You could earn it with out leaving Kuwait, or Qatar!\n\nOn the other hand the new Combat Action Badge is more like the CIB used to be and requires the soldier to engage or be engaged by the enemy.  This is the one I have.\n\nChange-----------\n\nI was wrong, what I put was the standard that was being used for infantry units when I was in Iraq, here is the real standard it is just like the new CAB except it is Infantry Only:\n\n (4)  On or after 18 September 2001:\n\n                a.  A soldier must be an Army infantry or special forces officer (SSI 11 or 18) in the grade of colonel or below, or an Army enlisted soldier or warrant officer with an infantry or special forces MOS, who has satisfactorily performed duty while assigned or attached as a member of an infantry, ranger or special forces unit of brigade, regimental or smaller size during any period such unit was engaged in active ground combat, to close with and destroy the enemy with direct fires.\n\n                b.  A soldier must be personally present and under fire while serving in an assigned infantry or Special Forces primary duty, in a unit engaged in active ground combat to close with and destroy the enemy with direct fires.\n\n                c.  Soldiers possessing MOS of 18D (Special Forces Medical Sergeant) who satisfactorily perform special forces duties while assigned or attached to a special forces unit of brigade, regimental, or smaller size during any period such unit is engaged in active ground combat may be awarded the CIB.  These soldiers must have been personally present and engaged in active ground combat, to close with and destroy the enemy with direct fires.  Retroactive awards under these criteria are not authorized for service prior to 18 September 2001.\n\n                d.  Those soldiers possessing MOS of 18D who qualify for award of the CMB from 18 September 2001 to the 3 June 2005, will remain qualified for the badge.  Upon request any such soldier may be awarded the CIB instead of the CMB.  In such instances, the soldier must submit a request through the chain of command to the CG, U.S. Army Human Resources Command, ATTN:  AHRC-PDO-PA, 200 Stovall Street, Alexandria, VA 22332-0471 for conversion of the CMB to the CIB.