ArmyRick said:
I have noticed when i first joined the army in 1990 that PT was like a religion. It remained as such until early 2000s. I do remember the OP tempo being pretty damn busy in the early ninties (1992-1993 we were closing Cypres, had 2 battle groups in the balkans and we put the airbourne regt in Somalia). So I don't accept the Op tempo excuse from combat arms units.
It seems people find excuses to not do organized unit PT. There is always time. Even during courses you can squeeze it in. It would also help if we got with a real pair of combat boots that would work like hitechs, than you could form up your platoon and double them more often.
Where there is a will, there is a way. People need to start enforcing the PT standards and this includes leadership by example. In our unit, the RSM is getting all the staff and instructors to do the expres test (not for the sake of doing it but to see where the unit stands physically fit).
Physical Fitness needs to be a priority again, no excuses. Even if you have to have your unit rotate it through (split your group into a and b groups), A would take PT as a group on Mon-Wed-Fri and B take PT as a group Tues-Thurs and next week switch it up.
We do switch it up here (when operational requirements allow for it) ... that's how we manage to pull off 3 days / week and
only an average of 10 or 15 hours overtime a week to do our daily jobs too just to keep our head above water.
Still need the overtime though when you're trade is short-staffed as it is and you've got 28 positions going unfilled because your trade isn't being "strenuously recruited" because it isn't zero.
Do you think leadership hasn't tried all kinds of things and "outside the box" suggestions like this?? We have, and we do.
But, when it comes right down to it ... op tempo IS affecting us. And, it WILL continue to do so until EVERY trade is manned at a proper and sufficient level to allow for support of domestic activity, international operational activity and physical fitness. You can only underman something for so long before SOMETHING has to give (and the troops DO have to sleep sometime ...) and I'll wager that supporting international ops, domestic training of those future soldiers for their deployments is higher on the list than PT when something has to take priority over another.
Eventually, ity gets past the point when you can just lay the blame on "poor leadership". We've gone beyond that now. It's BAD manning, it's the fact that the CF is UNDERMANNED (especially in the purple trades) and understrength to continue doing everything while our support positions sit unfilled, unrecruited for, and at the bottom of the Army's priority listing. If I don't do my job ... you aren't deploying. If I'm at PT - I'm not doing my job. If there's 6 positions like mine in my Unit and 2 are sitting unfilled ... that means there's 4 of me to do 6 people's worth of work each and every day. It's even worse at the Cpl/Pte level where we have 28 positions unfilled, but still have to do all that work too.
If we don't, you've got no vehicle spares for LAV courses, you've got no ammo for students at CTC, no rounds for the guns, no kit getting issued, no LPO getting done to support you, ... and on and on. And trust me, WE hear about it. Finding excuses my ass. It is a fact of life these days in the purple trades.
Yes, we were busy in 92-93. Way back when our positions were actually fully staffed. Before those huge reductions in manpower occured. You want to talk op tempo overseas --- well I'll tell you this much ... I'm MUCH busier today than I was in 92-93 and I was friggin' busy then too. You're comparing apples and oranges ... and the FRP (government induced) that occured to the CF right after your 92-93 time period is exactly what causes us to be in the shape we are today. We are now reaping the "benefits" of that ensuing decade of darkness and all the pain and bitching that goes with it.
And, when I as a supervisor have to make a decision about whether or not my staff will split-shift to PT/work when I've got a 300 pers CAP course to kit so that they do not end up "cease training", a platoon to kit for overseas to TFA, and staying behind to input demands to get critical vehicles spares ordered, received, and distirbuted to the maint guys to fix vehicles needed for the same reasons and to avoid more "cease training" ... guess what gets cancelled? PT - and I have zero problems with that.
You want me to do it all in a 9 hour day ... then the system better start giving us the proper and required resources to DO it all in a 9 hour day instead of mirroring off the balme to "bad leadership". What a cop out to blame the Units at the lower levels for a system that is under stress, strain, and is overtasked for it's current manning levels.
