First Lt. Casey Ralston counts out push-ups for Lt. Col. James Sheridan during an Air Force physical fitness test in May at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. Ralston is the Unit Fitness Program Manager for the 435th Mission Support Squadron. (Ben Bloker / S&S)
First Lt. Casey Ralston counts out push-ups for Lt. Col. James Sheridan during an Air Force physical fitness test in May at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. Ralston is the Unit Fitness Program Manager for the 435th Mission Support Squadron. (Ben Bloker / S&S)
Senior Master Sgt. Jim Inskipt gets his height measured by Airman 1st Class Suzanne Butler during an Air Force physical fitness test last month at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. Butler is a physical training leader for the 435th Mission Support Squadron. (Ben Bloker / S&S)
Capt. Etienne Miszczak,an JAG officer, runs the mile and a half portion of his Air Force physical fitness test last month at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. (Ben Bloker / S&S)
ARLINGTON, Va. — Beginning in January, airmen will have to take physical fitness tests twice a year to help make fitness a way of life, Air Force officials said Wednesday.
“Doing it once a year lends us to having some [airmen] that they just go out and they try to pass that test once a year, and we don’t want that because that puts them in a risk factor for their own health,” said Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Rodney J. McKinley.
In another change, cardiovascular fitness will make up 60 percent of an airman’s score, up from 50 percent, said Lt. Gen. Richard Y. Newton III, deputy chief of staff for manpower and personnel. The body composition component will drop from 30 to 20 percent.
Newton described a hierarchy of fitness, which took shape after the service sought input from fitness experts.
“The hierarchy starts with cardiovascular aerobic,” he said. “The secondary piece of that is with body composition. The third is muscle fitness, starting first and foremost with the core area, your stomach area, and then with push-ups.”
The tests will be administered by civilians at central locations and will continue to be pass/fail, requiring a minimum score of 75 to pass, officials said.
The changes announced Wednesday resulted from an internal audit last year that found the Air Force needed to do a better job administering its fitness program, said Brig. Gen. Darrell D. Jones, director of force management policy.
Following the audit’s release, Pacific Air Forces made testing more neutral by putting PACAF health and wellness center staff members in charge of administering the test.
U.S. Air Forces in Europe decided to wait until the Air Force issued a new policy before implementing sweeping changes in its fitness program, USAFE officials said at the time.
One of the audit’s findings was that the Air Force was not measuring waist lengths consistently, Jones said.
“You had a person who was probably taping them too tight; somebody else may be taping them too loose,” said Jones, who will soon be major general.
Full-time test administrators will be trained to give the exam uniformly, and that should yield better results, he said.
Right now, only 3.77 percent of active-duty airmen fail, but the Air Force expects that number to go up once the new standards go into effect, Jones said.
“It’ll increase because we’re gonna have consistency and objectivity,” he said. “I think initially that’s going to drive a higher failure rate.”
But he also said he expected airmen to “rise to the challenge to meet the new standard.”
Stars and Stripes reporter Jennifer Svan contributed to this story.
