SecDef Hegseth: Same Combat Role Fitness Standards For Men And Women

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The combat fitness standards for our men and women in military MUST be the same if you are a soldier in a combat role. That’s the new directive from SecDef Hegseth.

Before I get to the details of Hegseth’s announcement, it’s important to note that the fitness standards imposed in 2022 fell…short of ensuring full combat readiness for our troops. Especially the women. Per this Rand study we find:

The evidence base to support the ACFT is incomplete

The Army has conducted research and gathered a wealth of evidence on the ACFT that demonstrates support for some, but not all, of the ACFT fitness events, and it is important that the Army address these gaps in the evidence base
ACFT scores collected by the Army during the diagnostic period show some groups failing at noticeably higher rates

The biggest impacts are observed for women, but there also are differences in pass rates by age (with older soldiers passing at lower rates), across components (with the U.S. Army Reserve and the Army National Guard lagging behind the Regular Army), and across military occupational specialties and areas of concentration.

Notably the Rand study not only finds that data wasn’t collected about those who DIDN’T pass the ACFT tests, but also that 65% of the women FAILED the ACFT (Army Combat Fitness Test). Which leads me to this question. How many women in the Marines, Navy, Air Force, Reserves, and National Guard failed similar fitness tests? I’d submit that the answer is more than we think. 

Here’s some of the details of this updated common sense fitness standards. 

The memo, which orders the military branches to “develop comprehensive plans to distinguish combat arms occupations from non-combat arms occupations,” specifies in hand-underlined text that the soon-to-be-developed standards must not “result in any existing service member being held to a lower standard.”

“All entry-level and sustained physical fitness requirements within combat arms positions must be sex-neutral, based solely on the operational demands of the occupation and the readiness needed to confront any adversary,” Hegseth wrote.

As the Washington Post helpfully points out, current fitness standards are adjusted for age and gender. So yes, there ARE different standards for men and women in the military. 

Amy McGrath has her panties in a wad over all this. 

No Amy, the standards are NOT gender neutral right now. They accommodate gender on every level. Every soldier I know who has or is in the service can tell and even show you in person that the fitness standards ARE different for men and women. Which does impact overall military readiness AND combat readiness. 

Furthermore, Army, as our friend Beege reminds us, fitness standards for combat roles have been adjusted DOWNWARD since the Obama Administration! To whit: How many of the 19 female soldiers made it through the very first integrated Ranger course, the Darby course? NONE. As in ZERO. Eight couldn’t even pass the course on the second go-round. 

Keep in mind, this training course is designed to ensure our Rangers are physically capable of carrying extremely heavy loads, including a rucksack, ammunition, and an 84 pound 50 cal. We aren’t talking just a 30 minute jog with all of this, we are talking hours and days lugging all this around while trying not to attract enemy attention. 

And all nineteen women, as Toni pointed out, couldn’t pass the Darby test at first-go. How many women since, as there are approximately 100 women Rangers, were granted a second or third try before passing? Does that scream combat fitness to you? It does not to me. How many women received passing grades even if they failed crucial portions of the test? As of 2019, we know of at least two from that initial class. 

The following two exchanges took place after the nighttime patrol, when the instructors had just learned that the female candidate had received a passing grade. The reason for the incredulity expressed in the messages was that the female candidate had been graded in the platoon sergeant role, a grade based almost entirely on her ability to keep track of all of the members of her platoon as they moved through the woods.

But she lost a member of the platoon. In fact, the missing soldier was so thoroughly separated from the rest of his platoon that the RIs had to shut down the entire mission, telling the platoon to go to sleep where they were while the RIs searched for the missing candidate. The platoon never had the chance even to attempt its assigned mission. But the candidate who had served as platoon sergeant, despite a failure in her performance that ended the mission, received a passing grade.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wants and is implementing combat fitness standards that are one size fits all. Whether man or woman, if you cannot pass, you are a detriment to the units combat readiness. Period. 

Are there some women who will make the cut the first time and are extremely capable? Absolutely. But a two-tiered fitness standard has been a significant detriment to our military’s overall capability, and certainly in the areas of combat readiness. 

As for those who are bleating about how this will keep transgender soldiers from the Rangers, Special Forces, or Seals… guess what? If you have to carry a boatload of medications with you while on a mission that might not have an end-date, you are NOT combat ready. 

One fitness standard across the board. Something that has been needed for a very long time. 

Feature Photo Credit: Machine gunner in the field via iStock, cropped and modified

The post SecDef Hegseth: Same Combat Role Fitness Standards For Men And Women appeared first on Victory Girls Blog.



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