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| -Land of the Free |
| Congress Demands the Army's New Physical Test Measure Strength and Endurance Rather Than Create Equity |
| 2023-12-20 |
[RedState] The National Defense Authorization Act has ordered the Army to up its game on fitness standards, specifically for soldiers in some combat specialties. This comes after the inability of the Army to come up with a physical fitness test that will measure physical fitness and treat men and women equally. This text is from page 382 of the NDAA conference report.SEC. 577. INCREASED FITNESS STANDARDS FOR ARMY 19 CLOSE COMBAT FORCE MILITARY OCCUPA20 TIONAL SPECIALTIES. The extraordinary use of the NDAA by both parties in Congress to tell the Army to get its s**t together was driven by the Army's inability to come up with a test that had some relationship to combat duty but that women could pass. Prior to and during World War II, the physical fitness test consisted of five events: squat jumps, sit-ups, pull-ups, push-ups, and a 300-yard run: this tested strength and short-burst speed. In 1959, the test was changed to add some skills as well as physical fitness testing and rebranded as the Physical Combat Proficiency Test. It retained the five-event structure, but the events were: 40-yard low crawl, 20-foot horizontal ladder/monkey bars, grenade throw (in basic training and for combat support troops, the 105-yard man-carry was used), and a 1-mile run in boots. In its first nod to women in the Army, the Women's Army Corps (WACs) had their own test consisting of arm circles, body twists, a bent-over “airplane” exercise, sit-ups, and jumping jacks. Around 1969, the tests were changed again to consist of sit-ups, inverted crawl (aka perverted crawl), run-dodge-and-jump (aka trip-stumble-and-fall), horizontal ladder, and one-mile run in boots. This video is of Filipino Scout Rangers carrying on a tradition they received from the US Army, the inverted crawl. In 1980, it became minimalist: push-ups, sit-ups, and two-mile run at first in boots but eventually in running shoes. (I usually scored 297-plus on this three-event, maximum of 300 points test — it ain't bragging if you can do it.) For most of its modern history, the Army used a fixed set of events in which the grades were scaled based on age and gender. The purpose was to require a certain level of general physical fitness, to provide a personnel management tool, and to give military school cadre a legitimate way to refuse admittance to anyone who rubbed them the wrong way. I'm only half joking about the latter. |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #3 This comes after the inability of the Army to come up with a physical fitness test that will measure physical fitness and treat men and women equally. Seems like they did. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2023-12-20 12:47 |
| #2 The 507th has been memory holed. No matter what you want, everyone becomes an infantryman in war or dead. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2023-12-20 11:46 |
| #1 Predominately male dominated MOS's. The 18 series is predominately 'white' male dominated. Everyone else can forget about PT and the weigh-in and Twinkie up. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2023-12-20 10:52 |