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Air Force pans Marines with new recruiting ad

Call it the recruiting video sure to be heard ’round the world.

Developed by the Air Force to promote its basic training program and physical training standards, the new video claims there is a misconception that the service is the “easiest” in the Defense Department — and that its new airmen graduate from basic training “in better shape than most Marines are.”

For Marines, long known to needle airman about fitness, that may come as a surprise. But the video is promoted on the Air Force Web site to help explain what occurs during the 8½-week Air Force Basic Military Training program, held at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.

“The recruits wake up at 0445, and they start exercising around 0500,” an Air Force military training instructor says during the video. “The biggest misconception is that the Air Force is the easier of the four services, when actually, we are the hardest when it comes to PT standards. Our standards are higher, and we don’t have the 12 to 16 weeks to get them there like the Army and Marines do.”

The claim may allude to the Air Force’s new physical training standards, which will be put in place Jan. 1. Airmen will be required to take their PT tests twice a year instead of annually with a new weighed scoring system requiring faster run times and more push-ups and sit-ups to record a perfect scored. The Corps currently requires PT tests twice a year, but will cut back to once a year in 2010, with a Combat Fitness Test also held annually.

Early results for the Air Force tests have been mixed. The 31st Maintenance Squadron at Aviano Air Base, Italy, recently tested its 370 members to the new standards and found that 163 airmen, or 44 percent, scored an 80 or below on a 100-point test. To pass, an airman must record at least a 75 on the test.

A Marine source said the issue was brought to the attention of some senior Marine leaders, who in turn contacted the Air Force about its content.

Marine Corps Recruiting Command, based at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., and Air Force Recruiting Service, based at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, could not immediately be reached for comment.

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