Fitness?

This is coolbert:

This comment was made in response to a blog entry of mine:

"Do you not think the immediate fitness problem could be eased by extending the period of basic training? The other needed remedies take much more time and change of attitude."

We are talking here about the relatively low level of physical fitness among American youth entering into the military.

Also, how societies around the world, NOT ONLY American, have a relatively low number of youth that pass even the most basic of military physical exams. We are NOT talking here about physical fitness in the military sense. We are talking about young folks just having the most basic standard of health to begin with.

In reverse order, the commentator is correct.

To change the attitudes of a society with regard to smoking, drinking, bad diet, etc., such negative factors that already exist take decades and GENERATIONS of persons to correct.

It has been over fifty years now [!!!] since Bonnie Prudden brought the subject of American youth being unfit to the attention of President Eisenhower. Emphasis has been placed on the topic, but without positive results.

There is no easy answer. Obvious.

"Do you not think the immediate fitness problem could be eased by extending the period of basic training?"

With regard to attaining a good level of physical conditioning in the military for those troops that enlist, I do not think a lengthened basic training [beyond the current Army eight week cycle.] will work. The whole idea of BASIC training is that, BASIC. You need to bring everyone to a certain level of proficiency, but that is only a BASIC level.

From that point on, improvement and maintenance over a long period of time must be the goal. From my experience, I do not see that happening.

Troops that are combat arms usually have an pretty rigorous regimen of physical training as part of everyday training.

This is just an obvious thing. The very nature of a combat arms soldier mandates a high level of physical fitness.

Troops in combat support, and combat service support less so. Especially in advanced individual training you find that the policy varies from post to post and MOS to MOS. Training for that individual skill is of paramount importance at that point. Other features of military preparedness, such as physical fitness, are less important to the trainee, the commander, the instructor, etc.

My own experiences with Army physical training and the observations I made thereof are mixed.

I enlisted originally in 1966, in the Army, at the height of the Vietnam war.

Our instructors for basic training were not trained Army Drill Instructors. They were infantry instructors. Men accustomed to having a troop that was already a graduate of basic training, and knew all the fundamentals of army life. Troops that already were at a level of physical fitness according to army needs.

NOT accustomed to dealing with RAW RECRUITS.

Our company commander was an infantry officer, career, Ranger qualified, just having returned from a tour in Vietnam as an advisor to the South Vietnamese. Some of the instructors were also returnees just having gotten back from Vietnam.

From the start we were told that most of us would end up in Vietnam and that we had to be ready. And physical fitness [PT] was one of the ways to make us ready. So we had a lot of PT. Running everywhere, pushups, etc.

My own perception is that these well-intentioned instructors and commander pushed too hard. You were dealing from the start with recruits, almost all of who had been drafted. YOU DID HAVE a lot of recruits that were able to pass an army physical, but were way out of shape, and overweight many of them too. Basic training for them became torture. Remember, this was BASIC training.

Many troops did have a lot of trouble with even the most basic of standards. The one mile run and the horizontal ladder seemed to give folks the most problem. Running for an overweight person is difficult enough. Doing so in the hot sun, wearing combat boots is even worse. That horizontal ladder was a really tough item for most also. A lot of overweight guys would hang from the first rung and could not even advance one rung more. Would hang until their arms gave out and then they would drop.

Overweight people are just not even ALLOWED in the military today.

BUT, if a draft was reinstituted, what then??

As I have said in another blog, having a mass draft is not the answer to manpower needs. You could create a draft, but when drafting, select, with rigorous application, only the most healthiest, fittest, and smartest recruits. Maybe a few tens of thousands of the best, inducted and then trained to very high level, would suffice. They would be able to do more and do more quicker and easier than hundreds of thousands of draftees that could not even achieve even a low minimum of PT fitness.

coolbert.