Navy Gets Tough on Unfit Sailors

[thedrifter]

Navy Gets Tough on Unfit Sailors
Sunday March 15, 2009

Last week I announced that the Corps was getting tough on overweight Marines. This week the Navy has made a similar announcement, concerning Sailors who continue to fail the Navy's semi-annual fitness test. According to Navy Administration Message 073/09, effective immediately, active duty Sailors who have three or more test failures in the past four years are ineligible for reenlistment, extrension, and change of assignment, unless they receive a waiver from the Navy Personnel Command.

Drilling reservists who three or more failures in the past four years shall be processed for administrative separation, without the option of being transferred to the individual ready reserve (IRR).

http://www.npc.navy.mil/NR/rdonlyres...0/NAV09073.txt

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Navy stresses consequences for unfit sailors
By David J. Carter, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Sunday, March 15, 2009

YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — The Navy is cracking down on sailors who fail to meet physical fitness standards.

Commands can no longer transfer, extend or re-enlist sailors who have failed three physical fitness assessments in four years, according to a Navy message Tuesday. The sailors also face administrative separation.

This move is the latest in the Navy’s force-shaping efforts, designed to rid the ranks of underperforming sailors.

The Navy’s current pass rate for the semi-annual physical readiness test is 95.9 percent, up considerably from previous years.

Sailors at Yokosuka Naval Base, however, are well ahead of the average.

"I only recorded one failure out of about 500 sailors last cycle, so I’d say that’s pretty good," said Chief Petty Officer Creighton Archie, Yokosuka’s command fitness leader.

Archie said sailors he encounters are taking the policy seriously.

"Participation has definitely gotten a lot better over the last couple of years," he said. "I’m seeing a lot more people in the gym throughout the day."

Starting next fiscal year, fitness will be reviewed as part of the Navy’s advancement and promotion process, and failure is something that Archie says can truly hurt careers.

"Failures at the E-6 and below level can adversely affect a sailor’s evaluation," he said. "But they’ll play an even bigger role at the khaki level; they’re the ones who are supposed to be setting the example."

With the current performance-based continuation boards for E-7 through E-9s, a failed physical fitness test can be the difference between retention and retirement.

Sailors in Yokosuka have access to 24-hour fitness facilities, command-organized physical training, and dozens of programs in place to help them succeed.

"The Navy is very accommodating in terms of physical fitness," Archie said. "It’s up to the sailors to take advantage of it."


Physical fitness assessment guidelines

Sailors with two PFA failures in three years are barred from these assignments:
Overseas
Special programs
Pre-commissioning units
Individual augmentee billets
Instructor duty

Sailors with three PFA failures in four years are administratively separated and cannot:
Transfer
Re-enlist
Extend

Ellie