Navy Fitness Assessment Reset Latest Effort in Ongoing Retention and Recruitment Drive

Last week, the Navy announced it would reset the service’s physical fitness assessments to give seafarers a chance to get fit after nearly three years of pandemic restrictions.

The PFA pass is the latest in a series of efforts the service has made over the past two years to increase recruitment and retention, including the recent deletion of failed fitness test scores from the past four years as it aims to almost 38,000 new sailors up for grabs.

“Historically, when unemployment is as low as it is, it has always made it very difficult to recruit members into our armed service,” Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro told the National Press Club on Tuesday.
“Over the past five years there has also been a challenge in terms of the propensity of young men and women to join the ministry and that has become another challenge… However, I will share some good news is that we now retain more marines and sailors than ever before.”

Beginning last year, the Navy introduced a range of changes, from raising the age of recruits to bonuses designed to increase the number of new recruits while keeping seafarers on duty longer—duty Sailors, this fiscal year has to despite lower forecasts to hire 37,700 new Sailors Final strength, Capt. Jodie Cornell, a spokeswoman for the chief of naval personnel, told USNI News in October.

So far, the Navy has met its retention goals for Sailors who have served up to 14 years, according to USNI News.

Still, in the last two weeks, the Navy announced the removal of previously failed fitness tests and announced that it would continue retention bonuses for senior lieutenant commanders and surface warfare officer department chiefs. The Naval Service introduced a number of retention awards in FY2022.

The changes, including some that have yet to be announced, are part of a campaign to keep the Navy manned, Rear Admiral James Waters III, director of the division for military personnel plans and policy at the Office of the Chief of Navy Personnel, recently told reporters Week.

In considering whether the Navy will have enough Sailors, the Naval Service is considering new Sailors, separations/retirements and retention, Waters said.

“So the Navy, as we say, is pulling the levers as aggressively as possible in all three categories and trying to maintain the overall strength of the crews,” he said.

Clearing previous failures in physical fitness assessments over the past four years is just one of the new announcements. It could help 1,500 seafarers stay on duty, Waters said.

“It’s a very small percentage of the force,” he said.

It is a one-time reset. If sailors fail the PFA sentence for the upcoming spring and summer, they will receive a mark on their record indicating they failed and need assistance, Waters said.

The reason for the one-time reset was to not penalize seafarers who have not been able to exercise in gyms during the COVID-19 pandemic, Waters said.

The change comes days after the Navy paid for a Super Bowl commercial in 16 markets, marking a change to the Navy Service’s previous plans to stop advertising on television.

The ads cost the service about $1.8 million, USNI News previously reported.

Explaining other changes to encourage enlistment, Waters explained how the Navy raised enlistment bonuses from $50,000 to $75,000 and also raised the maximum enlistment age to 41.

Raising the maximum enlistment age, borrowed from a 16-year-old law passed by Congress when the Army raised its enlistment age. The goal is to expand the pool of potential recruits, although some positions will have lower age limits, said Recruiting Command spokesman Cmdr. David Benham told USNI News in November.

“As we continue to operate in a challenging recruitment environment, raising the age of hire allows us to broaden the pool of potential recruits and create opportunities for employees who wish to serve but were previously unable due to age,” said Benham.

The Navy also accepts sailors with lower scores on the Armed Forces Qualification Test so long as they perform well in the Armed Forces Vocational Aptitude Battery.

The Armed Forces Aptitude Test and the Armed Forces Vocational Aptitude Battery are two entrance exams required by the Navy. The AFQT is scored based on percentiles, similar to the Graduate Record Examination used by graduate programs.

The idea of ​​accepting those who score in lower percentiles is that the Navy would place more weight on the armed forces’ occupational capability battery, which it believes would better reflect how recruits would fare in service, USNI News previously reported.

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