Photo By Lt. Col. Peter Bogart | CAMP HUMPHREYS, Republic of Korea – 1st Sgt. Sherri Nobles, 1st Armored Brigade...... read more read more
Subscribe
CAMP HUMPHREYS, Republic of Korea – “After 16 years in the Army, I was so glad to see something like this.”
Those were the words from First Sgt. Fausto Trivino after a demonstration and execution of the new Army Combat Fitness Test during a leadership development program (LPD) for senior enlisted leaders from the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, who are in Korea as the rotational brigade supporting the 2nd Infantry Division.
The LPD had been planned before the official Army announcement of the new fitness test, and the event was added by the Raider Brigade Command Sergeant Major, Command Sgt. Maj. Robert Leimer, so that First Sergeants and Sergeants Major could experience first-hand the new events and also familiarize themselves with the time and resource challenges in setting up and executing the test at the company and battalion level.
“We want to focus on the new events that our senior enlisted leaders will be training their Soldiers on,” said Leimer.
With only a short amount of time to set up the event, Command Sergeant Major Christopher Williams, 2nd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, faced some unique challenges in ensuring that the equipment was to the standard specified for the new events.
“Resourcing for this event was a bit of a challenge because we don’t have the exact equipment on hand yet, for instance we have 14 pound medicine balls but not 10 pound ones,” said Williams. “We were able to borrow 10 pound medicine balls from the gym though and this won’t be an issue going forward because the Army is providing the required equipment to the battalions.”
The brigade’s First Sergeants and Sergeants Majors met 5:30 a.m. at the football field in front of the brigade headquarters, and teams at each event gave a short brief on the event and then demonstrated the correct execution of each event.
After completing the demonstrations on each lane, the leaders were split into five groups and had 10 minutes to execute each station to standard. While there was not a consensus on which event was the hardest, the events mentioned the most were the 250-Meter Sprint, Drag, and Carry and the Leg Tuck.
“The Sprint-Drag-Carry is the most challenging because it requires you to sprint a 25-meter lane, down and back five times all while performing different tasks and racing against the clock,” said First Sgt. David Pelham. “With this being the first time ever attempting this event, I didn't have an idea of how to pace myself so I went all out and by the time I hit the 40 kettlebells my legs were feeling it.”
Trivino said that going through the events highlighted how balanced Soldiers will have to be between strength and endurance to be successful on the new test. Trivino, who is a master fitness trainer, had his favorites from the new test.
“I liked the dead lift and the leg tuck,” said Trivino. “The leg tuck works your arms, abs, core, and legs.”
Pelham agrees that the new test will be a challenge for Soldiers.
“The Army Combat Fitness Test is no joke,” said Pelham. ”I think every Troop, Company, and Battery should have their Leaders take the ACFT as soon as possible; that way they can see just how demanding it is and so that way they can make the changes necessary to their current PT schedules.”
By October 2020, all soldiers, regardless of age or gender, will be required to take the new Army Combat Fitness Test and beginning this October, the Army will field the necessary equipment to 60 battalions across the active Army. The Army will then conduct a one-year evaluation to work out how the test will be scored, make adjustments to events as needed and consider the policies required to implement the new test.
| Date Taken: | 08.01.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 08.03.2018 03:20 |
| Story ID: | 287074 |
| Location: | CAMP HUMPHREYS, KR |
| Hometown: | FORT STEWART, GEORGIA, US |
| Web Views: | 122 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Raider Brigade Senior NCOs Conduct New ACFT, by LTC Peter Bogart, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
