Posted on 03/16/2021 3:50:33 PM PDT by PROCON
The U.S. Army is considering reversing its plans to set a gender-neutral fitness standard in the new Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT), an Army official told Military.com last month.
The ACFT was intended to be a gender-neutral test, and would have required soldiers to score 360 out of 600 possible points, but preliminary figures showed 54 percent female soldiers failing the gender-neutral standard, as compared to 10 percent of male soldiers, according to Army data shared with the Washington Post last fall. Female soldiers were also scoring 100 points lower on the test, on average, than their male counterparts.
“We are currently in the assessment phase as we collect ACFT scores from Soldiers across the Army,” an Army spokesman told American Military News on Tuesday. “We are taking a deliberate approach to gather information from the force and conduct an independent review in accordance with the NDAA so that we can revise the ACFT to ensure it’s fair for all Soldiers and is an accurate predictor of fitness required for combat.”
Fitness test performance is tied to promotions and there has been concern that the ACFT in its current form would hold back female troops seeking advancement.
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2021, included a provision that halted the Army from implementing the ACFT until the Army studies “the extent, if any, to which the test would affect recruitment and retention in critical support military occupational specialties of the Army, such as medical personnel.”
(Excerpt) Read more at americanmilitarynews.com ...
Are they diminishing the military so we can longer support them?
I come from a proud military family. From WW2, Korea, Cold War. My heart is broken, TBH.
The AFCT grade is part of promotion criteria.
But it certainly isn't good for Army readiness.
Good!
I considered the ACFT test a backdoor way of keeping women out of the Army, since the Army was pressured into opening combat arms fields (and even special forces) to women.
I never personally took the test, and am glad I did not have to do so. Due to medical reasons, I did not take the last two APFT tests before I retired. The last test included a trial ACFT test to see how our unit would perform, thank goodness I did not have to do that!
A young, very fit Soldier complained to me that although she always got maximum score on the APFT, she had absolutely no hope of getting maximum score on the ACFT. The maximum requires dead lifting 340 pounds—out of range of the vast majority of women.
The APFT test takes into account both gender and age. The ACFT is one size fits all.
There really is no reason that women in support MOSs should have to pass the same physical fitness standards as men in combat MOSs. The physical requirements to perform the job are completely different.
And no, the fact that most women fail the ACFT does not demonstrate that women have no place in the military. We do have a place, just not in the combat fields. Women are perfectly capable of fulfilling support roles.
How many transgenders pass the test? Isn’t that the question we should all be asking? There should be a special test for those that decide to cut off their penis for $200,000 at taxpayer expense. It makes no sense whatsoever to invest 200k in a dickless solider only for she/him/it to not be able to pass a simple test.
Maybe they could apply at Antifa since they appear to be a branch.
When the whole barracks cycles together it’s prime time to send them into combat.
It was during the Obama regime when it was announced women would be in infantry combat units. BUT it was said fitness standards would not be lowered for women.
At that moment I realized they planned to lower the fitness standards.
Even in my day (75-86), some of the most unfit (fat) sailors were E-7 - Chief Petty Officers. I never understood why the commands let them slide. Below had regular fitness tests/requirements. Many of the Chiefs couldn't even touch their toes if they had a rino on their back.
Still, I wanted to make Chief until I got a great civilian offer and discharged at E-6. I can't remember the equivalent of Army or Marine E-7(Sergent Major?), but Chiefs pretty much ran the sub boats and smaller surface ships. They had their own berthing quarters, mess, and free gangway privileges, not to mention no more ugly cracker jack uniforms.
Got it. Thanks.
I agree completely, besides other Army MOS's I was Field Artillery 40+ years ago, a very physically demanding field even for men.
(Now go make me a sammich 😎)
So on test day just identify as female and take the easy test.
Civilized countries do not put their females in combat.
Period.
E-6 = Staff Sergeant.
E-7 = Gunnery Sergeant
E-6 = Staff Sergeant
E-7 = Sergeant First Class (which was my rank at retirement)
In a few years the US military wi be nothing but trannies and fat black female general staff.
I also remember wishing, while I was in the infantry, that I was in a support MOS. When I reclassified/changed my MOS to military court stenographer (court reporter), they went to one PT test for men and another for women.
“it looks to me that the Army is reconsidering their lessor physical standards for women.”
Nope.
They tried to go to a single standard scoring table, with no separate ones for age or gender. (https://www.army.mil/e2/downloads/rv7/acft/fy20_standards.pdf )
Apparently, the lowest common denominators selected, were not low enough to retain enough women.
It looks like they will make some administrative change to how women’s scores are handled (like hide them from promotion boards, and not discharge any for failing the test), until the minimums are lowered again, or a separate (lesser) scoring table for women is adopted.
In the Army, promotion lists are generated within MOS branches. If a male and a female are competing for the same position within the same MOS/job field, they should be required to pass an identical test. Otherwise, you've got a soldier who can't perform the job functions which should be required to be performed by all soldiers within that MOS.
Look what I found.
To gauge whether a soldier had gained the required aptitude in these physical skills, and was prepared for the demands of battle, the Physical Combat Proficiency Test (PCPT) was created. It consisted of five events: low crawl (40 yards), horizontal ladder/monkey bars (20 feet long), grenade throw (sometimes substituted for a 150-yard man carry during basic training and for combat-support troops), ‘dodge, run, and jump’ (agility run), and a 1-mile run. While completing the test, soldiers were required to wear their combat uniform (sans jacket) and boots.
That's the test I took in BCT at Fort Lewis in summer of '69.
https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/history-of-the-armys-pt-test/
Or, as I used to call it: The dodge, run, trip, stumble, and fall (lack of agility run) ...
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