84% of Women Failing Army Combat Fitness Test

[JHC]

[QUOTE=sandy11B3V5W;940353]

Then why are we implementing a more comprehensive PT test that could eliminate 40 percent of the under performing force? The initiative has been placed at the feet of those out of shape Soldiers and they're being given a fair chance to fix themselves. The same argument could be made about the new weapons qual being rolled out during the same time frame.

Strategic level leadership has placed an emphasis on setting and enforcing higher standards across the Army; I doubt that's a politically popular thing to do right now. New dress uniforms aside, I'm quite pleased with the job SMA Dailey and new SMA Grinston is doing right now.

+1 I’ve had a chance to meet a few outsized in influence senior officers and it’s very clear that among sustained ground combat forces physical fitness is an obsession. The workouts of light units anyway (my recent exposure of a few years - 4/25 in AK, 10th MTN, 1st BCT 82nd) would have killed every one of my battalion during my time in the early 80s. Many company level units have their own hardcore gyms and wear them out. I know you know this, just putting it out there. 😉

[TGS]

If you think the majority of the DoD leadership @ Da Pentagon cares about fitness, I got a crayon tree to sell (Marines Only). Those folks only care about their promotions and keeping Congress happy. They’d abolish PT tests entirely if it had political traction- and I’d wager we’d still see the same ratio of unfit vs fit people .

Whether your job is rucking a pack in ___Istan or repeatedly pressing “Enter” in a climate controlled building , the members preparedness for war is up to them. That is true regardless of AFSC/MOS ,gender, or rank.

I can see how this would be your opinion as a junior enlisted financial paperwork dude in the Air Force, but this is not a good read on both senior leadership at the Pentagon nor your last two sentences.

[EMC]

I hereby declare this thread interservice ribbing.

Also, if someone tells me an Air Force joke I've never heard before, I'll shout you out in my next video (sometime in Feb).

I don't have a joke just a couple real life stories from FOB warrior in Kirkuk in 2005. I was Army Artillery backdoor drafted into being humvee mounted security.

We get called out to an IED planted on a main supply route. Typical block traffic and wait for EOD to come investigate and detonate it. We wait the requisite number of hours and the Airforce EOD team shows up with their fancy robot. Robot shows it's a stack of 152mm soviet arty shells in a ditch. Ok cool. They plant some C4 on the shells and proceed to blow it. Crazy white smoke and sparks is all we get and a few shell hulks go flying out into the farmers wheat field. Turns out the shells are illumination and smoke rounds not high explosive.

Mr. High speed enlisted airman goes out into the field to look at the empty shell hulks that blew into the field. He bids me to follow. He decides to put a block of C4 in a now empty illumination round shell rather than just carry it out. I get a confused look on my face and shrug my shoulders. He smiles and lights some kind of fuze and we get outta there. It blows the shell into fragments, one of which kills a nearby sheep and sets the field on fire, another which nearly cuts a powerline pole in half. I now have a bunch of angry farmer civilians gathering and so we opt to try and suppress the flames with our fire extinguishers which I later got in trouble for despite my efforts to win hearts and minds. Not one of EOD's proudest moments.


In another story we are leaving the gates for night patrol and see one of the Air force security forces humvees out in a field doing nothing. Highly unusual and so thinking there may be some threat on the road out we go up to ask the situation. Guy in the TC seat looks surprised to see us and just says "uuuuuuh, we're just occupying this grid square". Me: ummm, ok, have a good time!

[Joe in PNG]

I hereby declare this thread interservice ribbing.

Also, if someone tells me an Air Force joke I've never heard before, I'll shout you out in my next video (sometime in Feb).

One of dad's stories from back during the Cuban Missile Crisis, over at the old Tripoli Air Base. All the zoomies got issued Garands, even the Chaplains.
One of them was an infantryman during WWII, and a bet was made that he could strip it blindfolded.

Turns out he still could. But, the exact means of proper reassembly was forgotten by him, and the others as well.

[MGW]

My lads are really solid PT'ers but maxing this, for their combat arms MOS will I "think" require 20 and they are figuring that's going to be the muthafkr. They aren't sweating the other stuff so much. Again that is not in the context of a pass but rather maxing.


The 11B E6 is currently at a recruiting gig and the workouts they are putting candidates to enlist through is smoking them pretty hard. Esp a shuttle run against a metronome - keeping pace with it. Sounds like a blood in the mouth thing LOL


Mountain Tactical published a few interesting counter argument articles last year about the ACFT, recommending other approaches ie replace the two mile with either a shorter run in kit or a longer ruck, not sure on specifics anymore.


Of all the events the "power" test of hurling the ball backwards seems the lowest value to me, most technique driven.


If they asked me I'd have simplified to like trap bar DL, the knee to elbows tuck, farmers carry, shuttle run and a 5 mile ruck full kit.


Overall though, a huge step forward. For say Infantry and Artillery specialties, I'll be curious to hear how it impacts promotions longer term as there are going to be darn few females scoring 290 plus and that shit figures in on performance reviews and getting schools and gigs.

I think the ball throw might cause the most injuries. I’ve had some back issues in the past and I don’t really want to chuck a medicine ball backwards like that. Maybe it’s not a big deal. I don’t know.

[Mark D]

I think the ball throw might cause the most injuries. I’ve had some back issues in the past and I don’t really want to chuck a medicine ball backwards like that. Maybe it’s not a big deal. I don’t know.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. That one is also more of a skill test than a test of basic strength and conditioning.

As for the leg tuck, I speculate they're looking for a way to measure abdominal strength without using a traditional sit up variant. In high volume, the sit up can be hard on some folk's spines. The leg tuck also requires a fair level of upper body and grip strength to maintain position. I think it's a good exercise, and I use a similar "knees to elbows" variation in my own workouts.

My main concern with the new army test is how equipment intensive it is. It looks like a nightmare to administer. But fortunately, that's not my problem.

[Wake27]

Throwing something backwards over your head is skill based?

The leg tuck is awesome because it gets at two areas - core as well as upper body pulling. There is a huge portion of the Army that can't even do a single pull-up.

[willie]

Some minimums are way too easy IMO. Not sure I'd want a Soldier on my team who can only dead lift 200 3 times or run their 2 mile in 18 minutes. That individual is a liability and I wouldn't be confident they could carry their shit to the OBJ much less execute at a high level once we got there.

I could do this at age 45.

[JHC]

Throwing something backwards over your head is skill based?

The leg tuck is awesome because it gets at two areas - core as well as upper body pulling. There is a huge portion of the Army that can't even do a single pull-up.

I've not done it but it's like throwing events in track. I was thinking "skill" because of the neural coordination required to coordinate delivering the power and timing the release. But that's not based on trying this event nor throwing in track! So basically I'm talking out of my ass


This morning rather than the knee to elbows tuck from a grip on parallel handles I grabbed a single bar like the ACFT. Da fook? Vastly more challenging I thought and a lot of torqueing to my right.

[hufnagel]

I heard the Air Force gets extra pay for hotels without a pool. I guess that's the capture and torture part of your SERE school right? Or was that sitting in a chair missing one swivel wheel watching Iron Eagle in 1080P but not 4K, on a screen that is only 55 inches?

-Cory

.... I loved that movie, and i'm not ashamed to admit it.