Air Force Community - Air Force Times

What airmen are saying, in e-mails and online

In regards to Capt. [Thomas] Worden’s study, he needs to go back to the drawing board. A half-mile run may be able to tell how fast it takes an airman to sprint for cover, but does nothing for their endurance assessment. Lifting a 30-pound dumbbell?

The assessment that the Air Force currently has does need to be reviewed and changed.

But, in my opinion, it is not really the test that is broken, but the program itself. Airmen are not PTing the way they should be and they are not being held accountable for their actions (or lack of action). If Capt. Worden wants to evaluate something, then he needs to evaluate the squadrons’ PT programs.

Keith Cox

Misawa Air Base, Japan

The fitness test we have now can’t possibly be an accurate appraisal of our combat needs because it’s so far divorced from the circumstances in which we’ll need to BE fit. Assessing a person’s fitness in a controlled environment based on a written standard is useless once the condition in which a person finds himself deviates from the standard.

We need war games. We need exercises, not exercise machines. We need to put some teeth in that old canard, “train how we fight.”

Tech. Sgt. Steven D. Carter

Minot Air Force Base, N.D.

Your article on the current Air Force PT test versus an actual combat fitness test was music to my ears. I am a 5’11”, 235-pound former SEC football player in pretty good physical condition. I am not “ripped to shreds,” however am not about to bust the buttons on my pants either. I have a 38-inch waist and always have 15-20 seconds to spare after maxing out the push-ups and sit-ups.

However, distance running is something I have never excelled at, nor will I. In trying to work toward a better run score, I developed chronic foot problems, which has forced me to take the bike test, which hasn’t exactly helped me either.

Now I am in the legal process, fighting a discharge for failing multiple Air Force PT tests, all the while being a preferred military member in a combat situation. Hopefully, the Air Force will fix what is broken in order to ensure that future military members in a deployed environment are able to “carry their own weight.”

Anonymous

Keesler Air Force Base, Miss.

I believe Capt. Worden is on point! I’m an old Desert Storm airman and have been on five deployments — three to Saudi Arabia and two to Iraq. Not once did a situation come up where you had to run a mile-and-a-half. And no one could care less if you had a 32-inch waist. When those rocket/mortar attacks hit the base, what mattered was that you get your butt to safety/undercover and use your Self Aid Buddy Care when you had to. Capt. Worden’s approach is common sense. Two thumbs up, Captain!

Tech. Sgt. James Geiss

McChord Air Force Base, Wash.

So we were “briefed” this Friday that an individual within our unit is currently at the SNCO academy and he wrote back to tell us that the CMSAF [Rodney] McKinley was at the academy and discussed the new PT policy. Starting this summer, we will be tested twice a year. Max points for the waist are now 35 inches. However, the max points dropped to 20. 20 for waist, 10 for push-ups and 10 for sit-ups. All emphasis will be on the run now. Scoring will go in diff increments as well, but I stopped paying attention after my disappointment with no change in focus on strength. I was really hoping someone woulda listened to that captain in this week’s Air Force Times. ... Just what I was told.

— Sgt HULK

George Carlin once said “When it comes to ideas, Americans can be counted on to do two things. Take a good idea and run it completely into the ground, or take a bad idea and run it completely into the ground.”

Over the last eight or nine years, the USAF has absolutely excelled in doing both. Professionally, I encourage fitness amongst my troops and keep myself above standards. Personally, I could [not care less] how fit someone is as long as he can get his job done. If your job is to put on full battle gear and go on patrol or rescue downed airmen, you need to be fit enough to do that job. If you load weapons onto aircraft, you need to be fit enough to do that job. If you run fiber cable through buildings, you need to be fit enough to do that job.

Encourage fitness, and give people time to be fit. ... But stop [messing] with the test, stop pretending that PT is suddenly so vital, and for Pete's sake stop thinking we need to be like the Army!

— Shrike