Abstract
The U.S. Army Physical Fitness School (USAPFS) at Ft. Benjamin Harrison, IN was tasked with measuring the physical fitness of the active Army. Performance on the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) was used to determine fitness levels. Data were collected at 14 U.S. Army installations CONUS-wide between October 1 and November 30, 1988. Five thousand three hundred forty-six male and 676 female active Army soldiers (N = 6.022) between the ages of 17-52 and in 60 military occupational specialties (MOSs) participated in the study. Generally, the results were favorable. Senior age groups performed well overall, especially females. Improvement in muscular strength and endurance conditioning since 1984 was also observed. However, concern was raised about poor performance in the youngest age group (17-21), where 16.6% of the males failed the 2-mile run event and 29.0% failed overall. Likewise, for females in the 17-21 year age group, 28.8% failed the 2-mile run and 36.0% failed overall. Several reasons are suggested for the poor performance of the younger age groups, including inadequate leadership in fitness training and low levels of self-motivation. This study suggest that many soldiers, especially young soldiers, may not possess sufficient levels of physical fitness to meet the physical demands of war.
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