Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ended Biden-era practice of having lower physical fitness standards for women who are in combat units. The standards for combat have been returned to one standard, which all applicants must meet.
Pete Hegseth’s order says that standards must be “sex neutral.” Military leadership must implement these new standards by October, he said.
“The United States military’s strength is rooted in its unwavering commitment to high standards that foster discipline, unity, and purpose. It is these principles that have made our fighting force the most formidable in the world. As the nature of warfare evolves and the demands on our Service members grow more complex, it is imperative that we assess and refine the physical fitness standards that enable our readiness and lethality,” Hegeth wrote in his order.
“Sex-Neutral Standards. All entry-level and sustained physical fitness requirements within combat arms positions must be sex-neutral, based solely on the operational demands of the occupation and the readiness needed to confront any adversary. In establishing those standards, the Secretaries of the Military Departments may not establish standards that would result in any existing Service member being held to a lower standard,” his directive says. He added as a handwritten footnote that no existing standard would be lowered in the process.
During the past few years of the Biden Administration., women were failing the Army annual fitness tests, so the Army lowered the grading standard for them and for older service members. The Marines also had lowered their standards for women, and some argued that this puts all combat troops at risk, especially for those who are assigned to the same unit as women who cannot meet the physical demands of the job.
How this new order will be implemented throughout the services remains to be seen. Last week, the Army announced that sit-ups were no longer part of its testing regime.
Instead, the new Ranger requirements are as follows:
Wearing combat uniforms and boots, soldiers must complete the following in 14 minutes:
- An 800-meter run.
- 30 dead-stop push-ups.
- A 100-meter sprint.
- 16 lifts of 40-pound sandbags placed on a 68-inch-high platform.
- 50-meter “farmers’ carry” of two 40-pound water cans.
- A 25-meter high crawl
- A 25-meter three-to-five second rush.
- Another 800-meter run.
After that, the soldiers seeking to be Rangers must change into their running gear and run four miles in 32 minutes — 8-minute miles — followed by performing six chin-ups. An 8-minute mile for a woman puts her in an elite category. Fewer than 30% of female runners can keep that pace for four miles.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski offered no comment on the new military policy, although last week was quick to criticize Hegseth, whose confirmation she had quite vocally opposed.
The Hegseth order:
This whole equality thing doesn’t work for me anymore.
Should have never gotten to this point in the first place. You want to run with the big dogs then you have to be ABLE to run with the big dogs.
These standards are not meant to be mean or exclusive and this level of fitness is needed to survive on the battlefield. Enemy soldiers care little about gender, pronouns, or physical limitations.
There are a lot more combat units than the Rangers, and the lower female fitness standards are not “Biden era,” since they were already present when I joined the “Regan era” army 45 years ago. I served as enlisted for years before I became an officer. Don’t assume that the females will be held to the higher standards, because that would just result in the loss of nearly all the females. The new standards will be somewhere in between, resulting in lower standards for the males.
Those are specifically ranger requirements. They should be upheld across the board regardless of gender. There are women who could meet those standards in their 20’s and 30’s if training, which they should be.
From the article… “He added as a handwritten footnote that no existing standard would be lowered in the process.”
Everyone wants to be equal, then do equal things to pass the same physical tests, no favors or lower standards to avoid washouts of those that can’t make it. Otherwise, look elsewhere to be all you can be.
FANTASTIC!!!!!!!
It seems some commenters failed to read the article. Only standards in COMBAT UNITS are affected. The gender based standards will remain for all other units. Even within combat units I anticipate certain admin or support personnel will be exempt. Women will still be serving in spades & not surprisingly, at very similar levels as they currently do as very few women opt for or choose to remain in true combat duty positions. One obvious source of data that reflects this trend is in special ops where service members volunteer.
A transgender female enlistee MIGHT be able to meet the rigorous Ranger requirements. Provided, of course, that ‘she’ is not recovering from sex-change surgical mutilations that were paid for by us taxpayers.
All of this Biden-era ‘woke-ness’ is a special form of societal madness. The sooner these costly and immoral idiocies can be ended the better.
Hegseth was a good choice