Jun 28, 2023 Army raises assessment and leadership standards
The United States Army announced the raising standards for its physical assessment tests and Basic Leadership Course.
Raising the standard will continually challenge soldiers and ultimately lead to more successful missions, Sgt. Maj. Michael A. Grinston said.
To allow Army leaders to focus on the larger battle picture, Grinston said Soldiers at the squad level must be proficient in battle drills, land navigation and basic first aid.
A story from the U.S. Army detailed the reasoning behind the raising of standards for its physical assessment tests and Basic Leader Course.
Below is the excerpt from the U.S. Army story.
“If you don’t know how to stop a Soldier from bleeding, it doesn’t matter if you’re in large-scale combat or counterinsurgency, you don’t know how to do your tasks,” Grinston said. “At the battalion and below, you need to be an absolute expert in your job. Every Soldier in your organization needs to know their job so well that we shouldn’t have to worry about that. [Then] we can worry about the deep fight and long-range hypersonics.”
The Expert Infantryman Badge, which distinguishes Soldiers who demonstrate excellence or proficiency in infantry skills, and the Expert Soldier Badge and the Expert Field Medic Badge form the EIB3.
To qualify for the EIB, Soldiers must complete a new physical assessment test.
During the qualification, Soldiers must don operational camouflage pattern uniforms and helmets, run for one mile, perform pushups and sprints, and push through a sandbag course. Then Soldiers must complete a high crawl, perform a series of exercises with a partner, run a designated distance while carrying weights and finally, Soldiers will finish another one-mile run.
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Grinston said the service plans to reward Soldiers who maintain a high level of physical fitness. Soldiers who score 540 or higher on the Army Combat Fitness Test will be exempt from the body composition measurements with a directive expected to be published in March, Grinston said. Soldiers can score a maximum of 600 on the exam.
Additionally, Grinston announced last year that the service will bring land navigation qualification back to the Basic Leader Course.
To read the full story from the U.S. Army, click here.
