Under Biden, Military Training Standards Fell to New Lows. Pete Hegseth Must Raise the Bar—and Fast
Lowering physical and academic standards has weakened the military, endangering the nation at a dangerous time.
America's military used to equate physical fitness with combat readiness. Under woke Democrats, high standards have been gutted in the name of "equity," and it could cost lives in the next war. America's adversaries are already outperforming U.S. American military in both physical and academic readiness.
Under Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth, that must change immediately.
The problem is older than you might think. When women were permitted to enroll in U.S. service academies in 1975, the Army struggled to develop physical assessments that were "separate but equal." As more women entered the military, the focus on physical training moved from combat readiness to health-related fitness and weight control. It was determined men's fitness testing was too difficult for women, so the Army shifted from the Physical Readiness Test to the Physical Fitness Test—shifting the focus further away from combat preparedness.
It's never fully shifted back.
In the 1990s, the Army began to revert to the correct combat readiness mindset, but a new problem arose: the decline in youth fitness and rise in childhood obesity. Suddenly the Army struggled to recruit fit and healthy soldiers after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, leaving the military without a force physically prepared for combat challenges.
After returning from an Afghanistan deployment in 2009, Army Captain Nick Bilotta reported alarming concerns about a lack of physical stamina amongst soldiers serving in combat. He claimed soldiers didn't have the strength and endurance to carry their own equipment, causing military operations to fail—a prime demonstration that physical unreadiness can be deadly.
Our Adversaries Set Higher Standards
The current Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) encompasses 6 different tasks: Deadlift, standing throw, push-ups, sprint-drag-carry, plank, and 2-mile run. As of the most recent update from March 2022, the minimum standards to pass these events are exceedingly low. The passing time for the 2-mile run in the 22–26-year-old category is just 22 minutes for a male and 23 minutes, 15 seconds for a female—practically a walking pace. Only 10 push-ups in 2 minutes are required for all ages and genders. Grandmothers could pass these so-called fitness tests, but it wouldn't make them combat ready.
These fitness standards are the same for all Army soldiers no matter their job, including those in frontline combat roles. Soldiers serving in battle need only meet the same requirements of those in cybersecurity or human resources. Rather than requiring physical readiness to match job descriptions, the Army lowered standards for all. Females and older soldiers were failing the test, so the Army moved to "an age and gender performance-normed scoring scale."
While the U.S. Army sought to weaken troop requirements, China maintains high standards for their soldiers. For example, the Chinese fitness test requires a 5-kilometer run at a minimum average page of 7 minutes, 24 seconds, but the U.S. Army only requires an 11 minute average for just 2 miles to pass.
The 2024 National Defense Authorization Act required the Army to set higher fitness standards within 18 months. The Army hired the RAND corporation, which stresses the importance of "diversity, equity, and inclusion" to better "serve the public good," to analyze and make recommendations for changes. This doesn't seem in alignment with Sec. Hegseth's directive to eliminate wokeness from the military.
Lack of Qualified Recruits from Public Schools
First used in 1976, the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test became the universal method to determine selection and classification of military recruits. Previously each service used their own different measurements. Now, young people interested in joining the military are failing the test in record numbers.
Students graduating from America's high schools are not academically prepared to pass basic tests. Recruitment numbers were so low that in 2023 the Army created a "pre-basic training" course to help recruits who failed the ASVAB or who did not meet weight requirements.
As Restoration News previously reported, the failure of public schools is now a national security concern.
In 2023, the Navy was so desperate for sailors it began admitting enlistees who score a 50 percent on the ASVAB, without even a high school diploma or GED. The Biden Pentagon even floated the idea of allowing calculators to help more recruits pass the test.
Even with these incredibly low standards, the military has missed recruitment goals year after year. In 2023, the Army only attained 25,000 new recruits—down from 68,000 in 2019.
It's alarming that America's military must scrape the bottom of the barrel to find willing and qualified people to serve and defend the nation. Lowering the bar will only lead to failure and that could mean life or death in combat.
But hope is on the horizon thanks to new leadership. Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth recently announced the Army had the best recruiting numbers in 15 years for the month of January 2025, immediately after President Donald Trump took office.
Americans now have a Commander-in-Chief they trust. The future looks bright to return the United States military back to the toughest fighting force in the world.
(READ MORE: Trump Must Investigate Biden's Army Secretary to Enact Lasting Pentagon Reforms)
