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   From: cockfordd@bigfoot.com   
      
   WASHINGTON (AP) — More than half of female Marines in boot camp   
   can't do three pullups, the minimum standard that was supposed   
   to take effect with the new year, prompting the Marine Corps to   
   delay the requirement, part of the process of equalizing   
   physical standards to integrate women into combat jobs.   
      
   The delay rekindled sharp debate in the military on the question   
   of whether women have the physical strength for some military   
   jobs, as service branches move toward opening thousands of   
   combat roles to them in 2016.   
      
   Although no new timetable has been set on the delayed physical   
   requirement, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos wants   
   training officials to "continue to gather data and ensure that   
   female Marines are provided with the best opportunity to   
   succeed," Capt. Maureen Krebs, a Marine spokeswoman, said   
   Thursday.   
      
   Starting with the new year, all female Marines were supposed to   
   be able to do at least three pullups on their annual physical   
   fitness test and eight for a perfect score. The requirement was   
   tested in 2013 on female recruits at Marine Corps Recruit Depot,   
   Parris Island, S.C., but only 45 percent of women met the   
   minimum, Krebs said.   
      
   The Marines had hoped to institute the pullups on the belief   
   that pullups require the muscular strength necessary to perform   
   common military tasks such as scaling a wall, climbing up a rope   
   or lifting and carrying heavy munitions.   
      
   Officials felt there wasn't a medical risk to putting the new   
   standard into effect as planned across the service, but that the   
   risk of losing recruits and hurting retention of women already   
   in the service was unacceptably high, she said.   
      
   Because the change is being put off, women will be able to   
   choose which test of upper-body strength they will be graded on   
   in their annual physical fitness test. Their choices:   
      
   • Pullups, with three the minimum. Three is also the minimum for   
   male Marines, but they need 20 for a perfect rating.   
      
   • A flexed-arm hang. The minimum is for 15 seconds; women get a   
   perfect score if they last for 70 seconds. Men don't do the hang   
   in their test.   
      
   Officials said training for pullups can change a person's   
   strength, while training for the flex-arm hang does little to   
   adapt muscular strength needed for military tasks   
      
   The delay on the standard could be another wrinkle in the plan   
   to begin allowing women to serve in jobs previously closed to   
   them such as infantry, armor and artillery units.   
      
   The military services are working to figure out how to move   
   women into newly opened jobs and have been devising updated   
   physical standards, training, education and other programs for   
   thousands of jobs they must open Jan. 1, 2016, said Navy Lt.   
   Cmdr. Nathan Christensen, a Defense Department spokesman. They   
   must open as many jobs to women as possible; if they decide to   
   keep some closed, they must explain why.   
      
   Military brass has said repeatedly that physical standards won't   
   be lowered to accommodate female applicants. Success for women   
   in training for the upcoming openings has come in fits and   
   starts.   
      
   In fall 2012, only two female Marines volunteered for the 13-   
   week infantry officers training course at Quantico, Va., and   
   both failed to complete it.   
      
   But the following fall, three Marines became the first women to   
   graduate from the Corps' enlisted infantry training school in   
   North Carolina. They completed the same test standards as the   
   men in the course, which included a 12-mile march with an 80-   
   pound pack and various combat fitness trials such as timed   
   ammunition container lifts and tests that simulate running under   
   combat fire.   
      
   Officials had added specific training for female recruits when   
   the pullup requirement was announced in December 2012, and they   
   came up with a workout program for women already serving.   
      
   Military testing for physical skill and stamina has changed over   
   the decades with needs of the armed forces. Officials say the   
   first recorded history of Marine Corps physical fitness tests,   
   for example, was 1908 when President Theodore Roosevelt ordered   
   that staff officers must ride horseback 90 miles and line   
   officers walk 50 miles over a three-day period to pass. A test   
   started in 1956 included chinups, pushups, broad jump, 50-yard   
   duck waddle and running.   
      
   The first test for women was started in 1969: A 120-yard shuttle   
   run, vertical jump, knee pushups, 600-yard run/walk and situps.   
      
   http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/01/02/marines-   
   female-fitness-pullups/4294313/   
      
                        
      
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