The Pennsylvania license plate read “11B-CIB,” and it transformed me back some 40 years when I was in the Army Infantry running a platoon in the Vietnam War as a first lieutenant.

“11B” is what is called the “MOS” designation for a soldier and his trained skill. (MOS means Military Occupational Specialty.)

   11-Bravo is the designation for soldiers in the Infantry. 



The “CIB” stands for Combat Infantry Badge, perhaps the one medal servicemen of all ranks and persuasions have looked up to. It means that the bearer of this award or badge had faced enemy fire or had been in combat.

Forced by My Country to Engage in War

Although I abhor war, I am still proud that as a young man I was forced to engage in it. I didn’t want to. I don’t know of anyone from my generation who liked war, except some gung-ho types who ended up in West Point and often didn’t know their ass from a hole in the ground.

     Or the one I served with who ratted me out and the company commander when we all snuck into Saigon one night and spent time with the ladies of the night.

     We got caught, and rather than go along with whatever the CO (Commanding Officer) offered as a lie, the West Point lieutenant could not tell a lie. He owned up to leaving the basecamp to see the harlots.

     Well, the commander and I got no reprimands, but we never fully trusted that junior officer. He probably went on to become a general and got his rocks off in the first Gulf War under the first Bush presidency.

I kind of feel sorry for the guys who were never in the military. Not the ones that protested the war by escaping to Canada or signing on as a conscientious objector. They’re heroes in my book. No, the ones I have compassion for are those that got a deferment because their father knew someone who could pull strings on their behalf.

The Combat Infantry Badge

But I wonder what they did when the next life challenge occurred? When they got married and had to support a kid, they weren’t quite ready for or discovered the marriage to the cheer-leader childhood sweetheart wasn’t what it was all cracked up to be, and she asked him for a divorce.

Challenges in life make you stronger. They also build character.

 And while you couldn’t ever pay enough to get me back into a war zone, I wouldn’t give up my experience – or my badges of honor – for anything in the world.