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New PRT?

helolumpy

Apprentice School Principal
pilot
Contributor
Doctrine Man's take on the new Army Combat Skills test


Maybe we should incorporate some aspects of it...
 

ea6bflyr

Working Class Bum
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
I see what you're saying, but from an anecdotal point of view, it seems like the shuttle run is going to get my heart rate going "better" than running "x" miles. As has been said in the other recent PRT thread, the PRT is a force-shaping tool, so there's always going to be a "gentlemanly" minimum time.

Whatever the test will be, it will more than likely be another "Force Shaping Tool" that will initially fail, then change to accommodate the failures. I've seen it time and time again.

-ea6bflyr ;)

My apologies to GatorDev, he said it first, but I did not see it in the previous post. He gets the credit for the great comment; I just happened to emphasis the word.

-ea6bflyr ;)
 

lowflier03

So no $hit there I was
pilot
Agreed. I think the other aspect that no one has mentioned is that the Navy doesn't want you to be physically fit to do your job*, they want you to be physically fit because people who adopt a "culture of fitness" and carry that on throughout their life are CHEAPER TO TAKE CARE OF both in the Navy and when they get out and either get TRICARE for life or some form of VA benefits. Paying retirees' medical bills is a HUGE chunk of the budget. If the Navy could just get everyone to quit smoking and stay skinny and healthy they wouldn't have to pay for all the eventual costs that come from lung cancer and diabetes.

And with that being the case, there are plenty of other things they should look at. As MB mentioned the rope and choke is a f'in disservice to our personnel. I know several people with 6 packs and obviously very low body fat that show as 22% according to "Navy" standards. And plenty of fatbodies with huge necks that look like a pear in a flight suit but somehow pass. There are much more accurate tests that wouldn't be very hard to administer. How about serving reasonably healthy food on the boat, or chow hall? Or how about fixing the other areas that result in disability? Bad backs from Helo seats, hearing loss from the crappy ear pro and cranials the guys are given, etc.

As for the actual fitness portion of the test, there are lots of ideas being thrown out. It's obvious that the current test doesn't prove anything. I could rant all day about the absurdity of the test and how whatever new one is decided on will just be used as a new force shaping tool instead of verifying healthy living, etc...
 

SH-60OB

Member
pilot
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.
 

LazersGoPEWPEW

4500rpm
Contributor
For a little different perspective, I was reading a book about Admiral Reeves and apparently the PRT in 1929 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.

I'll take the 100 miles on a bike. I could do that shit in a day.
 

KBayDog

Well-Known Member
Love this idea. Would love to see an impromptu test as part of an IG. Think the culture would change?

It is, on our side. Typically, on very short notice (a day or two), some Marines will get pulled for a PFT, some for a uniform inspection (Alphas), some for drill, etc. Not sure how "random" the actual sampling is, but it happens.

Not sure of the specifics of the PRT, but I think if every Sailor had to be ready to run a PRT at a moment's notice, it would go a long way in shaping a culture of fitness. Fitness posters in the ships' gyms aren't enough - you need to wield a stick from time to time.

Oh, and stop serving fattening shit on the mess lines every meal...and having ice cream socials every week...and nacho nights every week...and steel beach parties every week...etc, etc, etc.

(That said, could you imagine how many more COs would get fired every year, this time for PRT failures?)
 

SH-60OB

Member
pilot
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​
 

Gatordev

Well-Known Member
pilot
Site Admin
Contributor
My apologies to GatorDev, he said it first, but I did not see it in the previous post. He gets the credit for the great comment; I just happened to emphasis the word.

-ea6bflyr ;)

No worries. I was only jokingly giving you a hard time in the mod thread.
 

squorch2

he will die without safety brief
pilot
the PRT is a force-shaping tool, so there's always going to be a "gentlemanly" minimum time.
Somewhat like the short-lived effort to revamp PRT standards around 2000. For those of you not around then, they changed the number of situps/pushups and run time to be more aggressive but also made it so that your lowest event score became your overall score. It didn't last very long.
 

helolumpy

Apprentice School Principal
pilot
Contributor
Somewhat like the short-lived effort to revamp PRT standards around 2000. For those of you not around then, they changed the number of situps/pushups and run time to be more aggressive but also made it so that your lowest event score became your overall score. It didn't last very long.

Especially when folks would look at how long it took them to run and the would base the number of pushups and sit-ups on what "category" their run time would put them in.
It didn't give you an idea of an individual's fitness level, it just grouped folks based on their run times.
 
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