Posted on 05/11/2021 10:36:49 AM PDT by Night Hides Not
Full title of article: Nearly Half of Female Soldiers Still Failing New Army Fitness Test, While Males Pass Easily
More than seven months after the official launch of the Army Combat Fitness Test, or ACFT, nearly half of female soldiers are still falling short, with enlisted women struggling the most, Military.com has learned. The data again raises questions about whether the Army's attempt to create a fitter force is creating more barriers to success for women.
Internal Army figures from April show 44% of women failed the ACFT, compared to 7% of men since Oct. 1. "Female soldiers continue to lag male soldier scores in all events," according to a United States Army Forces Command briefing obtained by Military.com.
(Excerpt) Read more at military.com ...
When I was an Infantry 2LT in 1975, there were five events.
Pull-ups; max score was around 12.
Pushups: max score was 50 with two minutes.
Sit-ups: Max score was 60 in two minutes
Horizontal ladder: I forget the max score, but it wasn’t easy, maybe 60 rungs which included changing directions every 15 rungs.
1 mile run IN COMBAT BOOTS: Max score was 5:56.
Top possible score was 500; 100 for each event.
I went through Airborne Training as an ROTC Cadet. Requirements were about the same, except the run was 2 miles or until the Black Hats decided it was long enough.
There was another ROTC Cadet who started running around the formation. Black Hats thought he was being a smart-ass, so one of the Black Hats took him out of the formation to run with him. That was a great idea until the Cadet ran him into the ground. Turned out this Cadet was an All-American cross-country runner ar Weber State. From then on, they ran together every day.
I am of the opinion that there should be three categories of physical fitness tests.
Category 1 - for soldiers in support units. Basic fitness test. Pushups, situps, 1 mile run.
Category 2 - for soldiers in combat support units. Fitness plus upper body and endurance. Pushups, situps, 2 mile run, squats and chin ups.
Category 3 - for soldiers in combat units. Pushups, situps, 2 mile run, squats, chinups and 30 lbs ruck 5 mile force march, same rucksack over the head lift.
No difference for male / female.
How do they expect us to do physical stuff while pregnant; good grief!
They can keep redesigning the standards until every woman passes, then they can smile and congratulate themselves on how far they've come. Until the bullets start to fly, then it will matter and soldiers of both sex will regret that they were put into the line of fire utterly unprepared for it physically.
yup, they belong in logistics/supply
“Maybe some women don’t belong in combat.”
But if they pass the bootie test???
Well, If they look like the IDF ladies I remember in this article, I might be ok with it. https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3026792/posts
In combat, the rear can quickly become the front lines and when engaged in direct combat, line units cannot come to the support of support elements. If the solider, sailor, airman, or Marine is unable to fight because he is out of shape, he does not need to be a solider, sailor, airman, or Marine.
“soldier” I swear I spelt it that way. I do not know what happened in the post.
Ping for New Army PT Test Results. Several good comments, beginning with “Night Hides Not”’s. I recall 3 changes of PT tests during my 20 years, 1973-1993. There was another “tanker’s PT test” that we took with the 3d Armd Div when I was the S-2 for 3d Sqdn, 12th Cav (83-85), that included carrying/rolling a road wheel, fireman’s carry of another crew member, pulling a steel cable, lift & carry of a 105mm training round.
If you enjoyed it as a Lieutenant, you'd have loved it as a cadet (which the black hats seemed to pronounce 'cadidiot').
I went in '88. The women and men did PT together, except men needed to do 10 pull ups to get breakfast and women needed (IIRC) to do 10 seconds of flexed arm hang. The women also ran as a separate group. One female 2LT insisted on running with the men. Sergeant Airborne was laughing at her and said she was welcome to join as long as she kept up with him. She agreed and said it wouldn't be a problem as long as he kept up with her.
Unbeknownst to Sergeant Airborne, she had been a member of the 1984 US Olympic track team. She and the black hats took off in a one-on-one race. She smoked his @ss. The rest of us were running in formation, but even so, she lapped our platoon on the track at Benning.
LOL!!
Your first assertion is incorrect. Medical personnel can not be required to fight or even be required to pick up a weapon.
“Medical personnel can not be required to fight or even be required to pick up a weapon.”
Sometimes it’s not a requirement, it’s whether you want to be alive ten seconds later.
“...barriers to success for women in the Army?”
What happened to the goal of defeating the enemy?
Unfit women have little chance of defeating the enemy army of physically fit males.
Wholesale slaughter of the U.S. Army straight ahead !
As well as chaplains. However, beyond that everyone else must be ready to fight and trained in manner in which they can. Anything less is a dereliction of duty.
I have been assured by a friend with a female in the Army that the standards have been adapted for females. I checked with a different expert, and it appears to be true.
The top 60% or so of each sex is considered ok....something like that if I understood correctly. Maybe it’s 40%.
The standards will be relaxed until females will each be issued a brass pole upon completing AIT. /s, but you get my drift.
It’s like science fiction where the fundamental laws of physics are, to a large extent, scrapped...
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