Let’s wrap this Freepathon up, Folks!
Posted on 02/06/2019 6:36:57 PM PST by jazusamo
The U.S. Army is developing a more intensive fitness test tailored to combat situations following complaints from commanders of insufficient troop readiness.
Top members of Army brass told The Associated Press that the existing physical fitness tests employed by the Army during basic training do not adequately prepare soldiers for the physical challenges of the battlefield.
A new test that is described by the military as far more physically intensive “may be harder, but it is necessary,” Gen. Stephen Townsend, head of U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, told the AP.
“We needed to change the culture of fitness in the United States Army," added Army Maj. Gen. Malcolm Frost, commander of the Army’s Center for Initial Military Training. "We had a high number of nondeployable soldiers that had a lot of muscular/skeletal injuries and medical challenges because we hadn’t trained them from a fitness perspective in the right way."
The new test, developed by Maj. Gen. Frost, does not adjust scores for age or gender, unlike the current test. It also adds exercises including dead lifts, sprints with 40-pound weights, power throws, and a 2-mile run among other new tasks.
“Many folks find it easy to do the maximum standard for the current test,” Frost told the AP. “This new test is gender and age neutral. I cannot max this test.”
The AP reports that the new test will affect every soldier who attends basic training, including those not traditionally in combat roles.
“It breaks the mindset of ‘I am an intel soldier,‘” one military intelligence specialist told the news service. “It changes it to ‘I am a soldier,’ because bullets on the battlefield don’t discriminate.”
The test comes in response to concerns about readiness from top Army officials, who told the AP that as many as 12 percent of soldiers are undeployable due to injuries at any given time.
About one-third of soldiers who enter the service leave before their third year due to injuries, according to Frost, which the Army attributes to insufficient fitness training during boot camp.
“The goal is about a having a more combat-ready army," Frost told the AP.
“does not adjust scores for age OR GENDER, unlike the current test”
That’s been needed for a long time.
If you haven’t the strength to drag a 200 pound wounded comrade, with pack, out of the burning vehicle, maybe you shouldn’t be with the combat units...
I felt pretty well trained for duty in Vietnam...except when the democrats threw in the towel.
“A 2-mile run among other new tasks”
Huh.
There’s some new ground they’re breaking there.
Somebody’s going to get a medal for thinking that one up.
Yep, it looks like the grand experiment hasn’t worked out.
“About one-third of soldiers who enter the service leave before their third year due to injuries, according to Frost, which the Army attributes to insufficient fitness training during boot camp.”
A third sounds awfully high. I can’t see how physical fitness training can keep a person from being clumsy and accident prone.
I think the problem is attributed to factors other than what they are saying. Such as the lack of masculinity and the shunning of rugged individualism in today’s culture. Put pajama boy in a uniform and he’d be getting owees all day long.
It is the Army. Or a medal for completing the two mile run, or thinking about completing the two mile run. Or proving you might be a genderless pregnant homohetero.
Use the Marine Corps standards. Train the recruits to meet them. A bit of extra time will more than pay for itself down the line.
Per the Army Times:
This is what the test will look like:
Deadlift between 120 and 420 pounds, depending on the individual soldier. You must do three reps in five minutes.
Two-minute rest.
Standing power throw. You’ll be required to toss a 10-pound medicine ball overhead and backward. You’ll have three minutes to make one practice throw and two for a grade. The longest distance is recorded.
Two-minute rest.
Hand-release push-ups. You lower your chest to the floor and lift your hands off the ground between each rep. You’ll be required to do the most reps in three minutes.
Two-minute rest.
Sprint-drag-carry. In four minutes, you will go 25 meters out and 25 meters back five times. Each iteration will include a different activity: sprint, drag a sled, run a lateral shuffle, carry two 40-pound kettle bells, then sprint again.
Two-minute rest.
Leg tuck. You will be required to hang from a pull-up bar and with your body parallel, then pull knees to your elbows for as many reps as possible in two minutes.
Five-minute rest.
Two-mile run on a track or a paved, level road, with a 20-minute maximum.
Looks good, I’d like to know what the numbers of push-ups and leg tucks will need to be, though, Sounds like a good goal to try for for my 60th birthday (I’m 57)...
“. . except when the democrats threw in the towel.”
That one burns me too. I have more respect for the Viet commies than I do the dems. All those that died in vain and still suffer today.
Let’s wrap this Freepathon up, Folks!
May just be raising the standard back to what it was before 0bama arrived.
Have they lowered standards, so that too many don’t get eliminated in boot camp? Other things going on?
We want the best trained, best conditioned military we can get.
Isn’t part of having standards, so that we eliminate those who can’t meet the standards?
Hell, we ran 4 miles every morning before chow at Benning during basic. Duck crawled with M14s over our heads at the end of the day. I lost 30 lbs in basic training getting ready for Nam. Best shape I was in...ever! And that includes my college football playing days.
No different scoring system for females?
That’ll last until the next promotion board.
Really....
So groundbreaking.
LOL!
Thanks for posting,
I still think the military is missing a very easy and inexpensive bet here. They always complain about the low quality of recruits, and reject large numbers because they would just take too long to get into shape: and not just physically, but educationally.
So what I propose is pre-training camps. Just a large area, with some cheap wooden barracks and a fence. When they get someone who is out of shape, overweight, or ill educated, they offer them one of these camps for one, three, or six months, *prior* to basic training, if they can make the standards.
The trainees wear their own clothing. If they are overweight, they are given individualized weight loss diets. And exercise, lots of exercise. And classroom, if they need to get a basic education. (With the bonus that they are also taught important military traditions and history.)
And the camps are run by *veterans*, not active duty military.
If they screw up or get injured, they lose their one chance.
This uses a philosophy of “a rising tide raises all ships”. That is, if the military gets better quality recruits, they can start training them at a higher level, and give them more in their training.
Doing things this way saves a ton of money and gets better quality personnel.
That’s great. But, if I am sticking my penis between my legs, pretending to be a girl, will I get a few extra seconds on the run. Tucking is tough.
//Obvious sarcasm.
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