AF recruiting video pulled...AF recruits in better shape than most marines?

Dangerous, such an action is going to inspire a veritable cloud of paperwork, the least of which will be dozens of Momorandum's For Record (MFRs) ... they may never make it out there, too many signatures.

may I suggest some isometric thumb pinky stretching, might help ... :icon_wink

You're shitting me.

Waist size used to be a major factor. Big points off for males who didn't have a 32" waist, which was kinda stupid. They pulled that requirement though. I hear my neighbor gripe about their new PT program all the time. Really though, the requirements are still considerably less stringent than the Navy's.

Consider that the max pushups you need to do in the AF (in 1min, age 30-39) to get the highest score is 57, situps is 54. The run for the same age group is a minimum of 14min for 1.5mi, max score achieved at <9:34.

And I'm comparing this to the Navy's standards, not the Marines! I'd like to see most of the AF pukes around my base do even two pullups, or walk 3mi.

I should add that there are some PT animals in the AF, but by and large, the Navy around here is in better shape than the AF. 'course, this is just one base...

Well...their "PJ special forces" look to have similar physical standards except for the part where their run distance is half of ours.

That one goes hand-in-hand with the other 2 USAF recruiting videos I saw while watching the NFL this weekend.

I'm not motivated enough to find the links...but if you haven't seen their "it's not science fiction" recruiting ads where they dynamically change the orbit of a comms satellite or get all Buck Rogers to rescue a downed airman, then you haven't lived.

Granted, the average Marine doesn't free climb towering desert peaks to fight a duel with a gargantuan fire monster...but at least that's obvious hyperbole.

I'd better get back to being a global force for good now.

That's where you're wrong! We had to do this after the 37 mile hump at TBS. Twice.

From here...

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/10/airforce_pt_101909w/


"The test itself is not changing — a 1.5-mile run, waist measurement, push-ups and sit-ups — though that’s little consolation to airmen. Now, airmen must take the PT test twice a year instead of annually and have their scores recorded by a civilian fitness expert — not another airman. A weighted point system is the finishing touch. The new scoring sheets show faster run times and more push-ups and sit-ups for all age groups. The new categories, in increments of 10 years instead of five, are below 30, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, and 60 and older."


Just a side note after some quick reading...

On the lowest/youngest male (old USAF not new) chart:
http://doni.daps.dla.mil/Directives/06000%20Medical%20and%20Dental%20Services/06-100%20General%20Physical%20Fitness/6110.1H.pdf
http://usmilitary.about.com/od/airforce/l/blfitafmale1.htm

1.5 mile run
USN - times range 8:15 to 12:30
USAF - times range 9:36 to 21:30

A 12:30 on the USN side is Probationary

A 12:30 on the AF scale is 37.5/50 points (= 75/100)

75 points on the USN scale is a 9:45 = Excellent low

Push-ups and curl-ups/crunches are similar except with a 1 minute time limit

Seems to me the USAF expects less from the start.

EDIT: I'll leave the old one above for a comparison. I revise my last statement above to...seems the USAF expects less of the younger personnel upon initial entry but hold them to approx equal standards as the USN by their 30th birthday. I would even venture to say that the USAf is holding their older personnel to a higher standard.

New USAF chart here http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=64781

Haha wow... how many here max the AF PT test? I'd venture to guess at least a third...

General note, but I wouldn't 'diss' or put quotes around their "PJ special forces" especially w/r/t their physical fitness. I got a chance to work with them last spring, and I don't think they would be sweating the Marine PT test.

In regards to the original point of this thread...............

The video is a bit reflective of some of the ills in the Big Blue. After nearly 10 years in my now, sister service, I feel qualified to speak to it's glory and also to it's illness. The biggest of ills is this tendency towards small kingdoms - which, seem to take on lives and missions of their own- even to the detriment of the bigger mission. The maintenance kingdom, the services kingdom, the medical kingdom, etc. We all (AF pilots) heard the stories about the troops at Dhafra who thought the mission of the KC-135 was to bring in fuel to run the generators for the services on base. Whether urban legend or truth, they demonstrated the fact that the sense of mission was largely lost in favor of a sense of "nobody is more important than anybody else." That's why we had security forces troops actually stop a taxiing U-2 (taxiing out for a real world mission) and accompanying mobile (chase car) to check the mobile car driver for a flight line driver's license. The SF troops actually saw themselves as the mission, not realizing that the only reason they are actually there is to get that black airplane, the very airplane they were holding up, into the the air. At times, It was enough to make you want to resign your commission.

Vick - you know what I'm talking about.

So, to me, this video has the same foundation. I'm all about seeing a troop take pride in his job - nothing more motivating for an officer to see than this. But, I have no doubt that this troop knows so little about the bigger mission of the AF, much less the rest of the military, that he actually believes he trains AF basic trainees to a higher standard than marine BTs. I would also speculate, with confidence, that some of his leadership told him the same thing and found some power point slide, with accompanying numbers, to validate it. It started with telling Airmen that they are just as important as Colonels and Generals, and this has translated to now telling them that they are just as "in shape" as Marines. We can't let anyone feel like they are less special than anyone else. Given enough time, they probably would have found a way to tell them that they were just as physically fit as a SEAL.

Oh I wasn't digging on them, I only used the quotes because that is what I've heard them referred to as, I don't know what their actual name is. I was doing the equivalent of "devil dogs" if I don't know the official name for a devil dog.

Horny,
There has to be an origin for all these. I mean, the loss of the big picture. When did this all begin for the Air Force? Could the 1992 reorganization of Air Force MAJCOM be the issue, Old SAC guys maybe ?

Seriously? Similar to to what? Is that entrance requirements or sustainment? Would be a shock to me because those guys are definitely not typical AF.

I think that I saw the director of the USAF PT program right here in Yuma! As luck would have it, she happens to be a AWACS crewman (LtCol) as well.

I think that this proves once and for all that the Marine Corps can learn a whole lot about PT from our brothers (and sisters) in blue.

I take it, you are facetious-panda?

You were so impressed you took a picture, right...

Where's that picture that made its round of the interwebs with like 17 different senior Air Farce Officers wearing like 7 different uniforms with an obese female Air Farce Colonel with her hands in her pockets. It's about time that one showed up.....

How can you compare any of the PT standards to the Marine PT standards. They do doggone PULL-UPS and run THREE miles.

Pull-ups are substantially more difficult than push-ups in my opinion.

That guy in that video was nuts.

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/302/afgangslv0.jpg

Funny you should mention that Horny. Just a few days ago Ghandi was arrested by the ass clowns. He was airboss and led the jet "across the red". Unfortunately he had pulled a few plane lengths ahead of the jet to make sure some stuff was clear, but despite the blue car with flashing lights and a U-2 rolling in right behind him, they perceived him to be a threat - so as the OG rolls up to shut down he sees Ghandi getting cuffed with yet more SF vehicles rolling in to assist with the situation. I've just about had it with these fxck sticks. :icon_rage

I don't know, I just read that it was their fitness test. I'm sure their actual indoc and sustainment is extensive.

Go here to read what the PAST standards are, this is what the guys need to be capable of for entry into the pipeline.

Operationally, I think they test IAW the Army's SOCOM test, but don't quote me on that.

That's the bitch of it - everything in the AF, to put it politely, is more political. So when an episode like this goes down nothing gets ironed out at the squadron level. The kingdoms that Horny spoke of are very real, so it becomes a matter of the ops group commander duking it out with the support group commander. The support group commander will never openly admit that his guys did anything wrong or stupid and the ops group commander won't call him out on it.

Don't think of the the AF as functioning as a military force - it's more like the DMV with some guns.