AirGunner

Valid point, but if you "ball one up", you are not gonna be able to run a mile or even two to save your a$$ "fit" or not. Yards/meters from the scene is more accurate...

KC10 FATboy

You are missing the point. The standard is the same for everyone. Someone who is 5'4" can have a 38" waist. Do you realize what that person would look like? As you mentioned, a 36" waist would be marginally passing. Also, a lot of jeans/clothing that say "32" really aren't 32". So even though someone can wear a size 34 or 36 (as I do depending on brand), I tape out very near the limit. And don't get me started as to why females can have more forgiving standards than men. I mean, we all do the same job right?

The USAF always has had a way of screwing up PT tests. Back in the early 90s when I started, they used a bicycle ergometry test to validate the oxygen use level of each member under the conclusion that the more efficient your body used O2, the better fit you were. Well, not really. And they knew then that the program had big flaws. Just like now, the top brass looked the other way. They used that program until Congress mandated a change. Congress mandates a strength test, not a cardio test so the USAF had to get rid of the bike tests.

JamesNoBrakes

But isn't that also why they have the push-up/sit-up and run tests? To ensure the "bottom end" is also fit?

I don't disagree that these could be better, but the military isn't an EEO employer either.

If the requirements were much more specific, would it be easier or harder overall? Would there still be enough variance in body sizes and segment lengths that there'd be quite a few outside the 95th percentile or whatever they choose to use? THEN you have a real hard time judging composition based on muscle, body fat, and all of those things, because it gets very subjective between individuals.

I'm not sure there's a perfect solution or that a significant change should be made.

Atlas Shrugged

Oh no, you did'nt!

AirGunner

Oh yes he did, Atlas...lol

Purple Drank

You're damn right I did.

Women do the same jobs and are paid the same as men.

Should women have different standards for their OPRs & EPRs? No? Then why are different physical standards allowed?

Anything other than equal standards is, by definition, discrimination...is it not?

UnderOveur

Yep. The double-standards are everywhere.

Feminists wants equal pay and opportunity, but not equal "standards" (as Bill Burr so eloquently points out). Race-mongers think it's A-ok for anyone from any "minority" to be proud of their race, but not white people. It's just fine for PC-minded people to be intolerant of others, but someone who doesn't subscribe to their BS better not be intolerant. Pornography and violent video games are protected 1st Amendment rights, but don't ya dare raise a nativity scene during Christmas.

The list of such hypocrisies goes on and on. And we all know where they come from, too.

DoubleD

This whole thing surprised me since I thought the military waived or loosened the rules for many things during the last 10 years to keep the forces manned. Is this the beginning of the drawdown mentality where there is no free pass anymore. People get booted for what was overlooked the year prior and then rules keep tightening and tightening like the drawdown of 92-95? Easier to shed people this way instead of SERB, Passover, or RIF. All of which might be used again I suppose.

106dart

The AF PT test is a joke. I agree that if the person that upholds (and gives people the boot for not meeting them) the standards should be accountable for them just as everyone else. So in that regard it's good that the Col is getting the boot. However, what an incredible waste of money and experience the country is losing just because someone's waist is a few inches too large.

The PT test is a force shaping tool, plain and simple. If they really wanted the military to be healthy, they would get rid of the burger kings, taco joints, and sodas, snack bars, etc on base. The PT test is an easy kill to make up for our broken EPR/OPR system.

Atlas Shrugged

You are preaching to the choir. The AF test is an effing joke. I watched a bunch of females take the test at my wing a few months ago. None of them passed by the standard, but they just kept on counting those pathetic pansy push-ups like they were setting some kind of world record.

The irony is that the PJs any many of us in my wing are in excellent condition but you would never know it on paper. I can't stand the hypocrisy of it all. I can't wait until it is all in the rear view mirror.