When the Obama Administration opened up all combat roles to women, the Army needed a gender neutral physical fitness test to put both genders on an even playing field. Under the Trump administration, the army released the Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) to do just that.
However, on March 23rd, 2022, Biden’s woke Secretary of the Army, Christine Wormuth, replaced the ACFT with easier exercises and a grading scale that desperately favors women. Furthermore, the Secretary will not allow subordinate commanders to set their own expectations, except for the Special Forces community which already had this capability.
Now that women are held to a lower standard than men, if the Secretary of the Army does not close combat arms branches to women, Army units will bear the consequences of this political decision in dire combat situations.
On May 28th, 2021, Secretary Wormuth was sworn in as the 26th secretary of the Army. She was a political pick, based on her gender as the first female Secretary. This is similar to Biden’s supreme court pick, Kentanji Brown Jackson, who was selected on the basis of gender and skin color. Wormuth never served in the U.S. military and spent her career both in government, and at the Rand Corporation, a left-leaning U.S. military think tank.
The Secretary has made other significant policy changes in the Army, including relaxing hairstyles for soldiers throughout the ranks. In March of 2021, Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson accused senior leaders of “feminizing” the military. “So we’ve got new hairstyles and maternity flight suits,” Carlson said, also referring to recent updates to Army and Air Force hair regulations. “Pregnant women are going to fight our wars. It’s a mockery of the U.S. military.”
Janon Miller at The Daily Mail wrote,
“As the world braces for a potential WWIII, the U.S. Army is lowering its fitness standards to be ‘more inclusive’. The Army is changing several of its fitness test exercises – including the dreaded leg tucks – in favor of planks because about half of all female soldiers were unable to complete the exercise. The new Army Combat Fitness Test, ACFT, which is comprised of six exercises, also slashes the number of push-ups from 30 to 10, reduces the power throw distance by two-thirds and gives more time to finish the two-mile run. The Army has been considering a new physical test to replace the 1983 United States Army Physical Fitness Test since combat jobs including the infantry and cavalry were opened to women in 2015. The tougher test was due to be introduced in 2020 but was eventually abandoned to be more inclusive to women.”
On May 5th, 2022, during the Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) questioned Secretary Wormuth about these changes asking the Secretary, “Has something changed about the nature of combat in the last ten months I am unaware of?”
Combat Arms branches in the U.S. Army are highly demanding positions that must require the highest physical fitness standards. Combat arms branches in the U.S. Army include — Infantry, Cavalry, Armor, Field Artillery, and Air Defense Artillery. It is unfair to both commanders and soldiers to operate in a unit that cannot hold everyone to the same standard. The Senator said, “This is going to get people killed.”
Secretary Wormuth, cited the Rand Corporation’s Independent Review of the Army Combat Fitness Test, the same liberal think tank that the Secretary once worked for, as the primary reason for the change in grading. She said the study concluded that the ACFT “created” disadvantaged groups in the U.S. military.
The Biden Department of Defense favors “inclusivity” above the welfare of its own soldiers. If the Army does not return to gender neutral standards, women should not be serving in Combat Arms.
Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) questioned Christine Wormuth, Secretary of the Navy, and General James McConville, Chief of Staff of the Navy, during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.
