Goal: ‘every airman physically fit’ - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Goal: ‘every airman physically fit’

Maj. Gen. Darrell Jones has been asked just about every question you can think of about the new physical training test.

And he can answer them because — as director of the Force Management Policy division — he helped overhaul the program.

In his office at the Pentagon, Jones sat down with Air Force Times to share what he knows about Air Force fitness policies.

Q. Why doesn’t the Air Force Instruction require commanders to set aside PT time at least three times a week as the current AFI does?

A. We are by no means backing off mandatory unit PT. We’re just trying to lessen the direct connection … so that people can’t come back and say you didn’t give me 90 minutes three times a week during what I perceive as my duty hours.

Q. So, there will still be airmen exercising together?

A. We are not changing our philosophy at all. You are still going to see airmen out in their Air Force PT uniforms in organized PT on any base you go to. We hope that increases … because statistics show that people have a much higher percentage of maintaining their fitness and continuing their exercise program, if they do it in groups.

Q. What if your wing is having a readiness inspection or surge operations? Will there be unit PT?

A. We realize … in these high operations tempo times, there may be times when it is difficult for members to get 90 minutes three time a week during their duty hours. That means we just got to get up and PT a little earlier, PT a little later.

If PT is important to you, you’ll get the PT in. That’s all we are saying here.

Q. What do you see as the main differences between the current and new standards?

A. We’re still going to do push-ups for a minute, sit-ups for a minute, run a mile and a half and have the abdominal circumference [measurement].

The new program is health-based. The new program gives you rewards for incremental improvement in your fitness. The new program emphasizes the most important part of fitness, which is cardiovascular endurance, so that our airmen will be able to perform in severe environments … work long hours if need be.

Q. Will airmen find the new test more difficult?

A. Under the new system, we’re going to expect a higher failure rate.

Anytime we’ve changed the fitness program, failure rates go up for a while, and after a while they come down.

Q. Are you concerned airmen will focus too much on fitness at the expense of keeping their job skills sharp or professional education?

A. Our goal is to have people pass the test.

Only 4.3 percent of the people taking tests today score 100.

Our goal is not to have every airman score 100. Our goal is to have every airman physically fit, and we’d like to see every airman in excellent condition, but all we’re grading airmen on is passing or failing the fitness test.

Q. With testing twice a year, more deployed airmen will be tested. How is that going to work?

A. If you’re at a robust [large] base, they’ll probably have the fitness program. If they are doing testing, it will be done just like everywhere else.

We may not have people testing in certain locations. We don’t want people traveling, putting themselves at risk to take the PT test.

If you are deployed for a year, the regulation will require you to test before you deploy.