The Army Has a Physical Fitness Problem, Part 1: Eight Myths that Weaken Combat Readiness
Matt Clark | January 25, 2020
If ever we’re asked to do anything in the future, whatever it is . . . you can requisition whatever you need. If you need tents, I’ll get you tents. If you need canteens, I’ll get you canteens. If you need more rifles, I can get you more rifles. Or shovels, vehicles. You can requisition that. You can’t requisition, when the moment comes, trust, discipline, and fitness.
— Gen. Martin Dempsey
The US Army is a force with extraordinary expeditionary capabilities. We send our soldiers around the world with remarkable regularity to fulfill a range of vital missions. But when we deploy units globally—whether to the ongoing mission in Afghanistan, to work with partners to defeat ISIS, or to reassure allies and conduct combined exercises in Europe or the Pacific—a big problem arises, one that we unfortunately don’t talk about. The Army routinely deploys its soldiers when they are at their lowest level of physical fitness.
This needs to be fixed. It is not only unacceptable but also entirely preventable. The Army’s replacement of the Army Physical Fitness Test with the more wholistic Army Combat Fitness Test is designed to “transform the Army’s fitness culture†and improve readiness for ground combat. This goal is laudable and the new test does signal a shift in the Army’s focus to a more functional form of fitness. However, this effort will fail to maximize combat readiness without addressing a deeper cultural issue that is largely ignored. It is not enough to train on the right tasks; that training must be maintained through consistency.
https://mwi.usma.edu/army-physical-fitness-problem-part-1-eight-myths-weaken-combat-readiness/
