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New PRT?

Uncle Fester

Robot Pimp
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
Here's the thing: the Navy can't seem to articulate what kind of fitness they want to test and why. The arguments on this thread alone show that there's wildly differing definitons of what constitutes 'fit'. Upper-body? Cardio-endurance? Core? And to what purpose? Why you're testing should drive the conditions of the test, right?

A PFT should determine whether you're capable of physically performing a basic job set. The Marines hold themselves to the 'every Marine a rifleman' standard. Seems to me, any sailor should be able to perform any physically demanding shipboard duty, e.g., fighting a fire, damage control, survival swimming, etc. The current PFT mostly seems to exist for the sake of having one.

General health and body composition (i.e., looking sharp in uniform) are supposed to be tested by the BCA. Why isn't that done by the Medical guys? They're supposed to be measuring your height-weight every year at your PHA anyway. If you need to get taped, I'd rather have a more accurate test (calipers, or whatever), done by a corpsman who does it regularly, than the damn tape run by a random dude in the squadron who may or may not remember how to do it.
 

fattestfoot

In it for the naked volleyball
For a little different perspective, I was reading a book about Admiral Reeves and apparently the PRT in 1909 was to walk 50 miles in a day or to ride a horse or bike 100 miles for 3 consecutive days. I'm all for bringing that back.

You all may want to rethink that 50 miles in a day thing. My last Battalion Commander in the Army decided to make it a requirement that every complete it (this is Special Forces, by the way). I've never seen so many feet that look like cottage cheese before. It also required that you start at 5am and people didn't finish until the next morning (obviously lots of studs finished in the afternoon). On top of that, it meant an entire day of rest on the tail end of it. 50 miles isn't something you want to sneeze at.
 

Bevo16

Registered User
pilot
It is my personal belief that the constant re-work of the PRT is due in large part to the fact that there are two O-4's in that office competing for a #1 EP fitrep. Whoever is assigned to PRT policy is not going to break out by just saying "looks good, no changes needed here". IMHO, the changes are needed, but slanted toward the current PRT-O's personal workout preferences.
 

Pags

N/A
pilot
Here's the thing: the Navy can't seem to articulate what kind of fitness they want to test and why. The arguments on this thread alone show that there's wildly differing definitons of what constitutes 'fit'. Upper-body? Cardio-endurance? Core? And to what purpose? Why you're testing should drive the conditions of the test, right?

Or, to pull from the "How Many Ships?" thread; should the PFA be threat or capability based?
 

Scoob

If you gotta problem, yo, I'll be part of it.
pilot
Contributor
It is my personal belief that the constant re-work of the PRT is due in large part to the fact that there are two O-4's in that office competing for a #1 EP fitrep. Whoever is assigned to PRT policy is not going to break out by just saying "looks good, no changes needed here". IMHO, the changes are needed, but slanted toward the current PRT-O's personal workout preferences.

Pretty much the root of all evil these days.

Just think of the ancillary benefits if we revamped the FITREP/EVAL process instead. Imagine the money we could have saved on uniform boards alone (and untold number of other moneypits) if we didn't have to compete against eachother to generate FITREP bullets out of nothing.
 

MasterBates

Well-Known Member
So true.. We break what is fixed so another guys can punch his ticket fixing what the other guy broke, which was considered a fix at the time, which got his ticket punched.
 

HAL Pilot

Well-Known Member
None
Contributor
It is my personal belief that the constant re-work of the PRT is due in large part to the fact that there are two O-4's in that office competing for a #1 EP fitrep. Whoever is assigned to PRT policy is not going to break out by just saying "looks good, no changes needed here". IMHO, the changes are needed, but slanted toward the current PRT-O's personal workout preferences.
My guess is that if you are an O-4 assigned to the BUPERS PRT office, it doesn't really matter if you are a #1 EP or not.....
 

Scoob

If you gotta problem, yo, I'll be part of it.
pilot
Contributor
My guess is that if you are an O-4 assigned to the BUPERS PRT office, it doesn't really matter if you are a #1 EP or not.....

Even worse - nothing breeds useless FITREP bullets like someone trying to turn an MP job into a #1 EP.
 

Bevo16

Registered User
pilot
My guess is that if you are an O-4 assigned to the BUPERS PRT (OPNAV, actually) office, it doesn't really matter if you are a #1 EP or not.....

For a physiologist, it's actually a career enhancing job. There aren't any line officers in that office.
 

ea6bflyr

Working Class Bum
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
For a physiologist, it's actually a career enhancing job. There aren't any line officers in that office.

I think we just figured out the real problem! Docs without patients == bad for everyone.

-ea6bflyr ;)
 

BACONATOR

Well-Known Member
pilot
Contributor
When I went looking for the source document the answer was a little different. Haven't found the actual Navy requirements listed but here is President Roosevelt's executive order 898 which outlines the Marine Corps physical fitness requirements of 1908:
  1. Officers of the United States Marine Corps, of whatever rank, will be examined physically and undergo the tests herein prescribed at least once every two years; the time of such examination to be designated by the Commandant of the Corps so as to interfere as little as possible with their regular duties, and the tests to be carried out in the United States between May first and July first, as the Commandant of the Corps may direct, and on foreign stations between December first and February first.
  2. All field officers will be required to take a riding test of ninety miles, this distance to be covered in three days. Physical examinations before and after riding, and the riding tests to be the same as those prescribed for the United States Army by General Orders, No. 79 (paragraph 3), War Department, May 14, 1908.
  3. Line officers of the Marine Corps in the grade of captain or lieutenant will be required to walk fifty miles, this distance to be divided into three days, actual marching time, including rests, twenty hours. In battle, time is essential and ground may have to be covered on the run; if these officers are not equal to the average physical strength of their companies the men will be held back, resulting in unnecessary loss of life and probably defeat. Company officers will, therefore, be required, during one of the marching periods, to double-time two hundred yards, with a half minute's rest; then three hundred yards, with one minute's rest; then complete the test in a two hundred yard dash, making in all seven hundred yards on the double-time, with one and one-half minutes' rest. The physical examinations before and after the test to be the same as provided for in paragraph 2 of this order.
  4. The Commandant of the Marine Corps will be required to make such of the above tests as the Secretary of the Navy shall direct.
  5. Field officers of the permanent staff of the Marine Corps who have arrived at an age and rank which renders it highly improbable that they will ever be assigned to any duty requiring participation in active military operations in the field, may, upon their own application, be excused from the physical test, but not from the physical examination, prescribed above. Such a request, however, if granted, will be regarded by the executive authority as conclusive reason for not selecting the applicant for any future promotion in volunteer rank, or for assignment, selection or promotion to a position involving participation in operations of the line of the Marine Corps, or in competition with officers of the line of the Marine Corps for any position.

Theodore Roosevelt​

After 3 days of building camaraderie with your evaluator, do you think he fudged your numbers like people do now?

Also, did they do the above test every 6 months or every time they changed commands? (hint: it says)
 
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