Personnel assigned to the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis warm up before their phyical readiness test in Newport News, Virginia, Oct. 14, 2021. The Navy has announced that it will remove failed fitness tests from sailor records, though sailors must meet standards moving forward. (Amy Johnson/U.S. Navy)
The Navy is wiping the slate clean for active-duty and reserve sailors who have failed fitness tests, as the service tries to keep retention numbers up by easing the way for sailors to reenlist or receive a promotion.
Service members who failed a physical fitness assessment on or before Feb. 15 will have their records reset to zero, the Navy said Thursday in a statement.
Those sailors also will be eligible for other career opportunities, such as a change of duty station, according to the announcement.
The policy cancels all administrative separations for officers due solely to successive failed PFAs. Enlisted sailors must make a request to cancel a separation or retirement resulting from repeated fitness failures, the Navy said.
The reset gives sailors, whose ability to prepare for and take PFAs was limited because of COVID-19 restrictions, an opportunity to meet fitness standards and stay in the service, the statement said.
During the pandemic, the Navy shifted to a single annual fitness testing cycle as outlined in a January 2021 memo. Prior to the pandemic, the service had two annual testing cycles.
Faced with missed recruitment goals, the Navy has renewed efforts to focus on retention, such as offering sizeable reenlistment bonuses and suspending for two years a program that capped how many years an enlisted sailor could serve.
Sailors with certain ratings can receive as much as $30,000 per year of additional service in bonuses.
However, the total amount a sailor can receive is capped at $100,000, according to the Navy’s online personnel portal. The bonuses can be reduced or stopped depending on the Navy’s needs.
The policy change does not exclude counting failed PFAs in programs and processes such as officer commissioning, selection or screening boards and special duty screenings, the Navy said.
And it isn’t permission for not meeting physical fitness standards, which, among other criteria, measure performance in activities such as running or swimming, and pushups.
“It remains incumbent upon individual sailors to invest in their personal health and wellness in order to maintain warfighting readiness,” the Navy statement said.
