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Letters

Creating a fitness culture

In January 2004, then-Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper introduced a new fitness program, Fit to Fight, that promised to embed fitness in the service’s culture.

Has it succeeded?

There are encouraging signs. Health and wellness center use rose 23 percent. Test pass rates also ascended. In 2007, 97 percent of airmen passed a composite assessment, compared with 87 percent in 2004.

But Fit to Fight promised a culture change, so judging its success necessitates cultural analysis.

Basic underlying assumptions — the essence of culture — lie at the deepest level. Beliefs and values become so taken for granted and strongly held that members find behavior based on any other premise inconceivable. Sadly, this is not the Air Force’s reality.

Obesity rates have doubled since 1995 and overall; 2008 data show that 56 percent of airmen are “fat” by service standards. Clearly, behavior based on any other premise is not inconceivable.

The Air Force should modify four major fitness program elements and improve its system of accountability.

First, remove the waist measurement from the score computation. It discriminates against height and muscle mass, and too easily makes or breaks a test. Fill the gap by increasing crunches and push-ups to 25 points each. In addition, revive the old Weight and Body Fat Management Program and make its focus health, not points.

Second, mandate quarterly testing. Annual testing is simply insufficient to motivate airmen to stay in shape. A quarterly system, which parallels most airmen’s training cycles, would promote year-round fitness.

Third, make a three-mile timed run the aerobic standard. Airmen are tempted to “gut out” the 1.5-mile run instead of getting fit. A three-mile run requires legitimate conditioning. At the same time, replace cycle ergometry with a three-mile timed walk as the submaximal standard.

Fourth, require everyone to document their fitness efforts — activity, distance, duration — on AF Form 1975, Fitness Improvement Activity Log, and submit it to the unit fitness program manager monthly.

Beyond program changes, bolstering accountability would foster cultural embedding. The Air Force must direct major command IGs to add fitness to their compliance checklists and begin inspecting programs.

Next, senior leaders must hold commanders responsible for unit fitness levels. Fitness status needs to be formally adjoined to the eligibility criteria for command selection.

Finally, add fitness history to the selection brief in order to secure the importance of fitness in officer promotions. For enlisted personnel, the Weighted Airman Promotion System needs to incorporate fitness scores.

In retrospect, Fit to Fight should be applauded, even though many airmen still approach fitness as more admin than ethos. Shaping deeply embedded assumptions takes much time and effort.

Lt. Col. Ronald J. Dougherty

Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.

GATES CAN CUT MORE

Congress should praise Defense Secretary Robert Gates, not criticize him, for cutting wasteful defense spending. America is suffering through what might be the second Great Depression, and the priority now should be helping families who are struggling to get by.

Unfortunately, the Gates budget didn’t go far enough. He could have saved even more money if he had cut, rather than added to, funding for other wasteful programs — such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. This so-called “state-of-the-art” fighter jet has been delayed for years because of engineering and safety problems, and it took years to get a prototype jet in the air (it was subsequently grounded). Yet Gates decided not only to keep the F-35 program, but to increase funding for it.

The F-35 is already the single most expensive Pentagon program in history. All told, it will cost taxpayers an amazing $1 trillion. Yet military experts say we don’t need high-tech fighter jets for insurgency wars like those in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even if we did, is this the right one? News reports a few months ago reported on a simulated flight test in which F-35s were “clubbed like baby seals” by existing fighter planes.

Our military spending exceeds that of the next 25 countries combined. We need to keep our nation safe, but we can’t afford out-of-control projects like the F-35. Congress should reduce or eliminate it, and focus instead on American families.

Brent A. Wilkes

National executive director

League of United Latin American Citizens

Washington, D.C.