Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 04/28/2025 7:10:31 PM PDT by george76
Starting next year, male and female soldiers in 21 combat arms jobs will have to meet the same physical standards on the Army’s fitness test...
The Army announced this week that male and female soldiers in 21 combat military occupational specialties will have to meet the same standards on the new Army Fitness Test, which also eliminates the standing power throw event, which soldiers dubbed the “overhead yeet.”
Both men and women between 17 and 21 years old who serve in combat arms military occupational specialties will have to deadlift at least 140 pounds under the new changes — women previously had to lift 120 pounds. Women in that age group will also have to complete the sprint-drag-carry event in less than 2 minutes and 28 seconds, nearly a minute faster than the current requirement.
The new standards will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2026, for active-duty soldiers and June 1, 2026, for the National Guard and Reserve. Any soldiers who do not score 350 on the test after their second attempt will have to be reclassified into a new job based on the “needs of the Army at that time,” said Regimental Sgt. Maj. Stephanie Carl, the senior enlisted leader for Army public affairs.
...
The test partially fulfills the Army’s longstanding — and elusive — goal of requiring men and women to be held to the same physical standards. In 2018, then-Army Secretary Mark Esper told reporters that the service was trying to create a PT test that was both gender- and age-neutral, “because the enemy does not specify who they’re going to shoot and not shoot — combat is combat.”
The Army eventually abandoned the age- and gender-neutral standards after initial testing showed that 84% of women who took the tests failed. The service also dropped the leg tuck from the test — which 72% of women failed during testing — following a RAND report that determined the event did not accurately measure women’s core strength.
But in March, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed the military services to develop “sex neutral” physical standards for service members who directly participate in ground combat.
The new changes to the Army’s PT test “fall in line” with Hegseth’s instructions but are “not a result of that,” said Command Sgt. Maj. JoAnn Naumann, the senior enlisted leader for U.S. Army Special Operations Command.
While the Marine Corps currently has no plans to change its Physical and Combat Fitness Tests, “All human performance standards are continually analyzed, assessed, and updated as needed,” said Maj. Hector Infante, a spokesman for Training and Education Command.
“All Marines in ground combat arms specialties are held to the same sex-neutral, occupation-specific, and operationally relevant physical standards,” Infante said in a statement to Task & Purpose. “Regardless of military occupational specialty, all Marines must also complete age- and sex-normed general fitness tests: the Physical Fitness Test and the Combat Fitness Test.”
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
The title seems dumb. All fitness tests are gender-neutral: here is the test, can you do it? Note that we didn’t ask you about your gender; you can either pass the test or you can’t.
Congress wants to draft our daughters. They are very close to passing it.
This change is HOW it always should have been.
Standing power-throw event. Well that is not necessary. Nobody throw grenades any more. huh?
The military tests have been two tiered for 10+ years to the point of men being stationed at obstacles to help females over and many her types if double ruling. It comes from the operating Law of Democrat Nature i.e. Disparity of result is ironclad proof of Discrimination and Racism/Sexism/et ceteraism. My son quit the army after 133 years and promotion to officer because of the wokeness washing over his part of the military, double fitness standards being very much part of that.
The female body is not built for sustained hard physical work and heavy load carrying and the military march at a high level, they are filling the VA hospitals and getting medical discharges with disability pensions, and replacing males who could do it better, faster, and with more energy reserves left over, and still retire healthy.
I think women should have to register for Selective Service. It’s only fair, especially if they want to qualify for gov’t jobs, bennies, etc.
After 133 years, it was probably time for him to retire anyway.
For an average male, that really is very easy to do.
Performing certain tasks is how tests need to be done. Its not trying to rip either side or make anyone fele bad. Certain things have to get done, you have to have certain dexterity, strength, speed and stamina to accomplish certain tasks.
Not terribly hard for a woman to do. Its actually less weight than what the average American female weighs, so on average they will be lifting less than their own body weight.
WHOA! Got an extra three in there. Make that 13 years.
Regimental Sgt. Maj. Stephanie
Command Sgt. Maj. JoAnn
That’s not what they mean. Their goal is to lower standards
enough where women and men can pass. Sounds great on first
blush, but what it means is that men will not be pushed to
meet their maximum potential.
Tell me what enemy of ours is going to be upset about that.
If women are meeting the standard, then the standard is too low.
Not losing a war is at least as important as tennis, golf, soccer and basketball, swimming and everything else that shows the sex differences.
At age 71 and 8 years into cancer, doing well thank you, I can deadlift a 140 individual and carry them a significant distance. It is an easy test. In my prime I could carry two sheets of 12’ sheetrock into a house, 50 trips in about an hour. I was one of the weakest people in the business. I was 35 years old when I switched jobs. If a woman can’t do this, she is a weak specimen of a military grunt.
Hint, no females ever worked carrying drywall, some helped hang it on walls, but never overhead. It is beyond normal strength in females.
Moving a Pilates ball around.
Playing pickle ball.
Fighting in a swimming pool in a duel of plastic foam noodles while floating on inflatable mattresses.
That test has been dumbed down, but should NOT have been.
I think a bottom line test would be to put 100 America women soldiers (take your pick) on a football field with 20 Russian Spetznatz guys and see how long it would take the 20 Spetznatz guys to knock em all out.
Then, reset your physical fitness requirements according to the 100 hospitalized women soldiers.
So, who are we kidding that the PT requirements are now yummy and everything is alright and our soldiers will win in future hand to hand combat fights. Bullshit!!! The standards need to be increased not genderized.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.