Army May Go Back to Job-Specific Scoring After All on the New Fitness Test

The Army is considering returning to job-specific scoring bands for the new Army Combat Fitness Test, the service's top general told lawmakers Tuesday.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville and Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told lawmakers in the Senate Armed Services Committee that the force is still tweaking the test and balancing the desire for a fitter force while also striving not to harm efforts to fill the less physically demanding jobs that are critical to warfighting.

"I took it last week; I think it's a good test. What we want to do is move forward with implementation. It'll give us a more fit force," McConville told lawmakers. "If you're a Ranger…or in a fitness type organization … I would say you want people with a certain level of fitness. If you're doing something else, a neurosurgeon, you might be more concerned with that person operating than leading the battalion in PT."

There will be no final decisions on the new fitness test, including its standards, until an independent study on it is completed at the end of the year.

The ACFT is in a beta phase, and soldiers are not penalized for performing poorly on the test. However, once the ACFT becomes official, failing the test could lead to someone's removal from the force. Low scores could stall a career, making it difficult to be sent to specialized training schools and promoted.

Currently, the test has a single standard for men and women of all Army jobs. However, when the ACFT was initially rolled out it had different scoring standards based on the physical demands of a soldier's job. For example, ground combat roles such as infantrymen and cavalry scouts had to deadlift more weight and do more push-ups to earn an excellent score than did those in non-combat jobs, like mechanics and chaplain's assistants.

"I took it last week; I think it's a good test. What we want to do is move forward with implementation. It'll give us a more fit force," McConville told lawmakers. "If you're a Ranger…or in a fitness type organization … I would say you want people with a certain level of fitness. If you're doing something else, a neurosurgeon, you might be more concerned with that person operating than leading the battalion in PT."

When asked about his performance on the test, McConville told senators he scored a 478, a solid score. The maximum score on the six-event test is 600, while the minimum to pass is 360, or 60 out of 100 points in each event.

In May, service officials including Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston told a House Appropriations Committee subpanel there could ultimately be de facto gender standards for the test.

Scores could end up being separated by gender, and divided by tiers – such as the 1st, 10th, 25th, and 50th percentile of soldiers. In practice, this could mean men and women still would have to meet the same standards but would not be compared to one another. A soldier's percentile ranking could be reflected in their record; for example, a soldier might be described as being in the top 10% of fitness ability among their gender across the Army.

Lawmakers have voiced concerned that the ACFT's events put women at a disadvantage. Last year, Congress passed a law forbidding the Army to move forward with the test until the independent study from Rand Corp. is complete. Even then, the test's future remains largely in limbo.

Last month, Military.com obtained internal Army data showing that 44% of women are failing the ACFT, compared to 7% of men. The data also suggests, however, that women get better at the test as they become more familiar with the events.

Even among those women who can pass the ACFT, most aren't scoring high. Only 66 female soldiers have scored a 500 or higher since October, compared to 31,978 men, according to data from April.

The ACFT is also a monumental logistical task for leaders to administer. The test involves bumper plates, kettlebells, diamond bars, sleds and medicine balls, and a large amount of space, which has prompted concerns from soldiers about being unable to adequately train for the test.

The previous fitness test consisted of only push-ups, sit-ups and a two-mile run. It required no gear, other than a stopwatch, and minimal setup and time. The new test consists of leg tucks or a plank, deadlifts, a sprint-drag-carry event, a standing power throw, hand-release push-ups and a two mile run.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/06/15/army-may-go-back-job-specific-scoring-after-all-acft.html

Military Defends Jan. 6 Response as House Steps Up Probes

15 Jun 2021 Associated Press By Mary Clare Jalonick and Nomaan Merchant

WASHINGTON — A top Army leader defended the Pentagon’s response to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, telling a House panel Tuesday that the National Guard was delayed for hours because it had to properly prepare for the deployment and that senior military leaders had determined beforehand that the military had “no role” in determining the outcome of an election.

Lt. Gen. Walter Piatt, the director of the Army staff, echoed comments from other senior military leaders about the perception of soldiers being used to secure the election process. He said the Pentagon wanted to be careful about their response in part because of concerns about military helicopters that had flown low over Washington streets during protests over the killing of George Floyd by police in the summer of 2020.

It also took several hours for Guardsmen to be equipped and given a plan for how to secure the Capitol, Piatt said. The building was overrun by hundreds of supporters of former President Donald Trump who sought to stop the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.

“When people’s lives are on the line, two minutes is too long," he said. "But we were not positioned to respond to that urgent request. We had to re-prepare so we would send them in prepared for this new mission.”

Piatt’s testimony comes as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the House will step up its investigations into the deadly riots, in which a violent mob overran police, broke into the building and hunted for lawmakers. She said Tuesday that the House “can’t wait any longer” to conduct a comprehensive investigation after Senate Republicans blocked legislation to create an independent commission.

One option under consideration is a select committee on the Jan. 6 attack, a setup that would put majority Democrats in charge. More than three dozen Republicans in the House and seven Senate Republicans wanted to avoid a partisan probe and supported the legislation to create an independent, bipartisan commission outside Congress.

But those numbers weren't strong enough to overcome GOP opposition in the Senate, where support from 1O Republicans is needed to pass most bills. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has said he may hold a second vote after the legislation failed to advance last month, but there's no indication that Democrats can win the necessary support from three additional Republicans “We can't wait any longer,” Pelosi said. “We will proceed."

Meanwhile, most Republicans are making clear that they want to move on from the Jan. 6 attack, brushing aside the many unanswered questions about the insurrection, including how the government and law enforcement missed intelligence leading up to the rioting and the role of Trump before and during the attack. Several Republicans tried to divert the subject, using their questioning to talk about coronavirus restrictions, the border and Biden's son Hunter, while others played down the severity of the violence.

Some of the Republicans appeared to defend the rioters, including Wisconsin Rep. Glenn Grothman, who grilled FBI Director Christopher Wray on whether some of those who broke into the Capitol were innocent. Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar repeated his arguments that a Trump supporter who was shot and killed while breaking into the House chamber, Ashli Babbitt, was “executed.” Democrats shot back that Republicans were trying to obscure the truth.

“This has got to do with the attempts by people to overthrow the government of the United States of America, something that hasn’t happened in well over 100 years,” said Maryland Rep.

The three witnesses at the hearing — Wray, Piatt, andGen. Charles E. Flynn, who was previously Army deputy chief of staff — were involved that day as the Capitol Police begged for backup. The National Guard did not arrive for several hours as police were overwhelmed and brutally beaten by the rioters.

Piatt insisted that he did not deny or have the authority to deny Guard help during a call with then-Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, the New York Democrat who chairs the committee, criticized Wray for not providing documents her staff had requested and asked him if he believed the FBI should be blamed for the law enforcement failures on Jan. 6.“Our goal is to bat 1.000, and any time there’s an attack, much less an attack as horrific and spectacular as what happened on Jan. 6, we consider that to be unacceptable," Wray replied.fucking liar

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/06/15/military-defends-jan-6-response-house-steps-probes.html