You mean the Army Combat Fitness Test which is pretty much universally being declared a failure and despite keeping the name they're basically rolling it back to being push-ups, sit-ups and run like the previous army physical test?
@Justtocheck
Laying the failure of the ANA and ANP on the feet on of the GBs just seems salty to be honest. All the units deployed there were tasked with "Nation Building" and training whatever local military force there was. Didn't matter if you were Army, Marine, Bundeswehr Heer, Royal Marine Commando etc, etc. You were gonna be playing build-an-army while you were there. So by all accounts the quality of the ANA varied wildly depending on who was training them in a given time or area.
The Afghan Commandos though which were directly trained by the GB, some even state side, were well liked and considered pretty competent over all. So credit where credit is due on that one.
The test wasn't a failure. It got scrapped because the majority of the force, especially women, couldn't pass. Even though it isn't a hard test for anyone in decent shape.
Oh, really? I thought they just got rid of the leg tug for people who had some sort of abdominal injury or surgery (like a woman with a c-section). To be honest, the part I really like about the ACFT is the hand release push-ups. It avoids the whole silly "No you didn't break 90 degrees", or humping the ground, barely moving the arms and still counting depending on who is watching.
What I heard was that units were complaining that because they lacked the facilities and extra equipment, they couldn't train specifically for the ACFT and got lower scores and lower chances of career advancements.
This is a good interview, with a GB retired Lt. Col. who I actually think is very smart, but he talks about leadership and decision failures in Afghanistan and how a group of civilians basically had to scramble to get Commandos out.
I got you about the GB, my point is not that they don't have smart people or are all bad soldiers. But decisions were made high up that made 20 years of work and many, many billions of dollars go to waste. And people in the GB had 20 years to adapt, change or innovate, so it's not like the failure can be blamed on a single commander, or general, or a bad batch of NCO's, or a single bad decision.
And in contrast to the Army, Marines, Brits, etc. the GB's mission set is to train and help develop local forces. You know about Robin Sage and their language and geopolitical training and focus that no other unit has, right? If your organization, as a whole, in 20 years failed their core mission set, then something important, somewhere, has messed up. And the Afghan Commandos are either in the US, exiled, or dead, so again, that they were competent is another grim "Well, at least I tried" consolation prize star.
