Army Retrieves 14 Combat Medals : Panama invasion: Embarrassed military says badges were mistakenly given to non-infantry wounded GIs.

The Army, in an embarrassing admission, is taking back Combat Infantryman Badges from 14 wounded soldiers who were mistakenly granted the coveted awards within days of their involvement in the Panama invasion.

Some of the awards were incorrectly bestowed because the wounded men were still under sedation when the medals were pinned to their pillows and could not be quizzed about their duties during the incursion, according to Army spokesman Maj. Joe Padilla.

Gen. Carl Vuono, the Army chief of staff, awarded the medals during a widely publicized visit to two military hospitals in San Antonio, Tex., on Dec. 22.

The chief of staff awarded 186 medals--such as Combat Infantryman Badges and Purple Hearts--during his time at the hospitals, Padilla said.

“There were 14 non-infantry soldiers awarded the CIB in Operation Just Cause. However, the awards have since been withdrawn and the affected soldiers notified,” Padilla said.

Although the awards apparently were given with some haste and without the usual review, the spokesman said the decision was not made to grant the medals just for publicity’s sake.

“This was not a photo op for Gen. Vuono,” Padilla said. “This was an honest mistake.”

“It was thought to be an opportunity for the men to be decorated by the chief of staff of the Army. . . . It was an effort to distinguish those soldiers thought to be deserving, and allow those who were wounded to wake up with the award on their pillow,” Padilla said.

A pool of reporters was permitted to accompany Vuono to Wilford Hall Medical Center for the presentation of medals to just three soldiers. The general also visited nearby Brooke Army Medical Center.

The badges had been granted to men who were military policemen, artillery soldiers, communications specialists, truck drivers and specialists in psychological operations, not infantrymen, the spokesman said.

The Combat Infantryman Badge is granted only to officers or enlisted personnel with specific infantry specialties who have “satisfactorily performed their duty” in an infantry unit while it has engaged in combat, Padilla said.

A formal review of the CIB awards found 14 were incorrectly given to soldiers who were not infantrymen or did not have infantry specialties, Padilla said.