Army Chief of Staff Believes New Physical Fitness Test Could Have Led to Less Death During the Korean War

I really don’t have a firm opinion yet on the new Army Combat Fitness Test, but I doubt being able to do deadlifts would have done anything to help Task Force Smith during the Korean War:

While the Army’s new gender- and age-neutral combat fitness test is hard, soldiers should have time to train for it before it becomes mandatory on Oct. 1, 2020, Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said Monday.

“If you can’t get in shape in 24 months, then maybe you should hit the road,” Milley said at the Association of the United States Army’s annual conference in Washington, D.C. “Maybe you should consider an alternative to this.”

During the 50-minute test, soldiers must complete a strength deadlift; throw a medicine ball over their head; do a set of pushups, during which they lift their hands off the ground after each pushup; complete a 250-meter “sprint, drag, carry” event; and finally run 2 miles. The Army is refining the standards for each event, which are based on whether a soldier’s military occupational specialty involves a “moderate,” “significant,” or “heavy” amount of physical exertion.

Task & Purpose asked Milley on Monday if the Army could end up losing older soldiers, who are unable to perform as well as younger ones on the combat fitness test.

“We don’t want to lose thousands of soldiers,” Milley said. “This fitness test is hard and no one should be under any illusions about it. But where we really don’t want to lose soldiers is on the battlefield. We don’t want young men and women killed in action because they weren’t fit.”

Many of the first soldiers sent to the Korean peninsula in 1950 were not physically prepared to fight a war in the hilly terrain, leading “countless numbers” of them to be killed as a result, Milley said.  [Task and Purpose]

You can read more at the link, but there was many factors that led to what happened in the early months of the Korean War and not being able to do leg tucks was not one of them.  For example being a able to throw a medicine ball at T-34 tanks would not have done much good when their bazookas and 105mm artillery could not even stop them.

Anyway here is my favorite part from the interview with General Milley:

“And there’s nothing like it. Ground combat is unbelievable. Go look at those kids, who are walking up and down the hills of Afghanistan. My dad at the beaches of Iwo Jima went 19 consecutive days without eating in some of the most brutal combat in military history. Combat is not for the faint of heart. It’s not for the weak-kneed.”

While the combat fitness test represents “a bit of a culture shock” for the Army that is sure to draw plenty of complaints, Milley said he expects the vast majority of soldiers to rise to the challenge.

“We’ve got to get this Army hard,” Milley said. “We’ve got to get it hard fast.”

Is that going to be the new Army recruiting slogan, ” Get Army Hard”?  😉