Category: U.S. Army

The days of the dreaded tape test might be numbered:

The Army will formally study the body compositions of more than 2,000 soldiers beginning in October, and the service plans to use the data it gathers to determine the future of its body composition program, physical fitness manuals and the much-maligned “tape test.”

The Army’s Center for Initial Military Training will lead the study in conjunction with the Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, according to an Army Headquarters execute order obtained by Army Times.

The study will take place at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the order says.

The study’s goal is to provide senior leaders with “information with regards to…taping of soldiers, body fat, and body changes, and considerations of the relationship between body fat and fitness levels,” the order reads.

The study will also evaluate alternative methods of calculating body fat.

Army Times

You can read more at the link, but I have always believed that if a Soldier can reach an agreed upon high fitness score on the fitness test that they should not need to be tape tested. Hopefully something like this is considered in this study.

Look who is taking over US Army Pacific:

 Gen. Charles Flynn took command of U.S. Army Pacific on Friday, vowing to continue transforming the 90,000-soldier force into one that can meet the challenge of a rising China.

“Today, as China trends on an increasingly concerning path, presenting challenge to the free and open Pacific, the Army is charged to change once more,” Flynn said during a livestreamed ceremony at Fort Shafter. Media were not allowed to attend the event.

Flynn — the younger brother of Michael Flynn, who briefly served as national security adviser under former President Donald Trump — took the reins from Gen. Paul LaCamera, who will move on to command U.S. Forces Korea.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Unfortunately the Army senior leadership brought this criticism on themselves. Everyone outside of the Pentagon could see this train wreck coming:

The chairwoman of a House Appropriations Committee subpanel slammed Army officials at a hearing Monday over what she called insufficient answers to questions on how the service is combating gender bias, specifically with its new combat fitness test.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., grilled Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Grinston on why so many women are unable to pass the service’s new combat fitness test.

“The test shouldn’t be structured in a way that is unfair and makes it so lopsided that it’s impossible for women to really be able to succeed and that definitely will reflect in your recruitment and retention efforts. So it looks like you have a problem and I hope you recognize that,” Wasserman Schultz said during a hearing of the subcommittee on military construction, veterans affairs and related agencies about Army quality-of-life issues and installation updates.

The Army Combat Fitness Test has long been criticized by Congress for its design, which lawmakers say comes at a disadvantage for women who struggle to pass the test. Data revealed in April shows 44% of women failed the ACFT, compared to 7% of men, Wasserman Schultz said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but the Pentagon’s efforts to create a gender neutral test caused them to become gender blind on what that would ultimately mean. You can’t implement a test that disadvantages females and think Congress is going to go along with it. The updated ACFT 3.0 eliminates the gender neutral elements of the ACFT which was one of the main reasons the test was created in the first place.

The way I look at this is that very few females want to join combat arms. Do I really care if for an example an Army nurse or a truck driver cannot do a leg tuck and instead does a plank? No I do not, so why kick this person out of the Army? The Army could not function if it kicked out the amount of females that the ACFT in its prior format would have removed from the force.

This is not the type of attention that US Army Recruiting Command was looking for with this ad campaign:

Two weeks ago, the Army’s official recruiting website released a series of animated advertisementsshowcasing the stories of several soldiers on their journey to join the nation’s oldest branch.

One in particular features Cpl. Emma Malonelord, a soldier raised in California by two moms.

Since its upload to YouTube, however, this video’s comment section has been disabled. It currently has nearly a million views, 36,000 dislikes and only 775 likes.

“Beginning May 12 we started noticing a significant uptick in negative commentary,” Laura DeFrancisco, public affairs chief for the Army Enterprise Marketing Office, told Army Times. “The comments violated our social media policy and were not aligned with Army values. Out of respect for the safety and wellbeing of our soldiers and their families, we have disabled the comments.”

Hers is one of five stories selected by the branch for recruiting advertisements under the series, titled “The Calling.”

Army Times

You can read more at the link, but Ted Cruz had to comment about all this using a Russian propaganda video:

The recruiting Youtube video is not at only 1k likes and 46 dislikes. You would think they would have turned off this feature by now. Plenty of bot accounts from foreign adversaries are sure to go and troll a US military video like this.

Captain Kristen Griest became the Army’s first female infantry officer in 2016 after becoming one of the first females to finish Ranger School. Now she is getting heat for demanding that females meet the same standards as men:

“I’m here saying, ‘Women can do more than we think.’ I have learned this,” she said in an interview, explaining her thinking. “Your gender is not as much of a limitation as you think it is.”

Griest, 32, has received a frosty response from some female service members and veterans, and was accused of “internalized misogyny.” Others have taken her side, or said that they understand her motivation. (……)

“To not require women to meet equal standards in combat arms will not only undermine their credibility, but also place those women, their teammates, and the mission at risk,” she wrote.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but she believes that women should meet the same standards as men on the Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT). The problem with the test was that over 50% of women were failing it largely because of one event, the leg tuck. Because of this Congress forced the Army to relook the test and the leg tuck was changed to allow anyone to take an alternate plank test. The plank is easier for people struggling to do the leg tuck to pass.

Another change was in the scoring; before there was three scoring tiers based off of one’s duty description. For example if you were combat arms you had to score in the highest tier of the test; now everyone just has to pass the minimum scores to pass the ACFT. CPT Griest is unhappy about all of this and wants to go back to a test that over 50% of females fail in order to motivate them to get fit.

The way I look at this is that very few females want to join combat arms. Do I really care if for an example an Army nurse or a truck driver cannot do a leg tuck and instead does a plank? No I do not, so why kick this person out of the Army? The Army could not function if it kicked out the amount of females that the ACFT in its prior format would have removed from the force.

Here is the latest update on the highly controversial Army Combat Fitness Test:

The Army could adjust how it scores its new Combat Fitness Test to account for the “biological differences” between men and women, a service spokeswoman said Friday.

The reevaluation of the ACFT comes weeks after Congress delayed its implementation over concerns the new test created an unfair disadvantage to female soldiers.

Army leaders are now looking at ways to apply scoring based on gender for the six-event, CrossFit-inspired fitness test, said Lt. Col. Peggy Kageleiry, a spokeswoman for the Army’s Center for Initial Military Training, which has led the ACFT’s development. The test was designed as a gender- and age-neutral fitness evaluation meant to simulate strength and conditioning challenges faced by soldiers in combat.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.