Posted on 06/22/2016 5:36:34 PM PDT by RightGeek
Yes and no. The PFT consists of Pull Ups (20 for max), Sit ups (100 for max) and a 3-mile run (18 minutes for max). The CFT (Combat Fitness Test) consists of a run in boots and utilities, ammo can lift, and a maneuver course. The first two are simple but the maneuver course can break a lot of folks, it involves high-crawling, grenade toss, ammo can sprint and a wounded Marine drag/carry.
It should be noted that there are very few enlisted women who are clamoring to join ground combat units. The clamoring is being done by female officers who think a combat command on your personal resume is a fast track to advancement and promotion. Hint to these officers: combat does not respect gender nor rank. There maybe opportunities to fast track a career because of the casualties that engaged units are suffering. Sudden death has a way of interrupting your meteoric climb from 2nd LT to General.
The other people clamoring for women in combatant slots are your usual assortment of American military haters and liberals. Notice that none of them will ever try to go into the service — their lives are too precious for that — but they will gladly send others out to get killed for them. These are the most despicable and evil people alive.
Stay strong and politically incorrect, USMC.
Women are not required to do pullups. See my last comment.
And neither test should be difficult for men or women. I did far better than those minimums in initial training at 31 years of age for the Army at Ft. Leonard Wood (15:35 two-mile run after about 13 years of cigarette smoking, very nearly 200 pound body weight after losing much weight in initial training).
The three-mile run can nearly be walked to do it under 28 minutes—31 for the girls (maximum times for minimum run standards). They should be required to do a minimum pushup test, too—very important for fire-and-maneuver capability.
Good for him. He should do well in boot camp. Have him ask the DI to also give him some hints on the mental challenges they will throw his way. Can’t wait until you come on FR to tell us about attending his boot camp graduation, when he is pinned as a MARINE!
Thanks! I looked the information up while you were replying and commented on it. Are the following charts current in regards to male and female standards?
http://usmilitary.about.com/od/marines/l/blfitmale.htm
http://usmilitary.about.com/od/marines/l/blfitfemale.htm
Correction of a mistake on my part in comment #22:
Females—minimum requirements:
Age 17-26
Flexed-Arm Hang: 15 seconds
[Instead of pullups.]
Combat infantry and light combat engineers (not construction) in the Marines and Army should be required to do at least 8 pullups for likely work, in my opinion (likely air mobile, AKA air assault, low walls, urban terrain, etc.).
Not only that, but it’s the MINIMUM score. You might be able to get out of boot camp with the minimum, but unless you are at near the maximum (20 pullups, 80 situps, and say below 20:00 on the three mile run, you won’t have a very long career unless you are a MOH winner, or the son of a general... ;-)
Those are the PFT scores for males and females. The CFT has a different scoring and IIRC both male and female are identical.
When I enlisted in (ahem) 1967, Marines had two physical fitness tests they had to pass: 1) the physical fitness test (PFT) and 2) the physical readiness test (PRT).
The PFT was an individual effort test and the scoring table awarded more points for better performance. For some reason, my memory recalls there being more than three events (pull-ups, sit-ups, 3 mile run) for the PFT in the early years of my service but it was pretty quickly pared down to today’s standard three events in the name of efficiency since it took time to administer it, especially when it was being done semi-annually by every one in the unit.
The PRT was done annually as I recall and consisted of a lot of combat-related physical tasks. Some of the events I remember were fireman’s carry, shuttle run, step-ups, 20 foot rope climb, running leap of an 8 foot trench, 3 mile run, etc. The PRT was pass/fail so individual max performance incentive was muted. In fact, units would sometimes do the run in formation with the strong runners “helping” the weak ones. There were 11(?) events in the PRT when I first came in, then it was cut to 9(?) (or was it 7 (?)) and then it was finally eliminated as being too time consuming to administer, difficult to maintain all the test fixtures/materials, and some considered the PFT good enough to assess fitness after boot camp.
Seems like a version of the PRT has been revived to ensure that “equality” and “diversity” do not compromise combat effectiveness. Good for them.
Semper Fi.
Thanks! We had to do a lot of pass/fails, too, but you know that most Army initial training was physically and mentally easier than what was required for my MOS (13 weeks of one-station unit training for initial training for us—all total control, no passes except for one between phases 1 and 2). After 13 weeks, I enjoyed pushing the ground and barking, until the standing, resting drill sergeants were tired. ;-)
I almost get physically sick watching some of these workouts. LOL.
“Seems like a version of the PRT has been revived to ensure that “equality” and “diversity” do not compromise combat effectiveness. Good for them.”
And if the ammunition can carry doesn’t do we, we can always add the classic “write your name in the snow” test!
This will do until we can go back to the sensible rules of before.
The wounded drag and carry is a real monster. I was doing the training with a SEAL team in Khwost and I had to grab a ‘slightly’ over weight translator. I finally grabbed him under the armpits, screamed like someone had taken a hammer to my toe, and drug him the last 50 feet to the enclosure. The team was laughing like a bunch of hyenas but they all congratulated me on getting that bucket of lard off the X.
It is a tough nut to crack for anyone, not just females. If the man cannot make the cut, out he goes too. Completely fair, the ammo cans do not care if you are a woman or a man, just if you can lift them.
That’s actually some pretty lax requirements for the men, too.
If the minimum enlistment age was raised to 65, I'll bet that guys 50 and older would have a better average.
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