Vindicated: Low Fitness Standards with LTC Nick Barringer

We’ve been trying to get Nick Barringer onto the podcast for a few months now, but he’s too professional to get in the trenches with us. At least he was until a recent report came out about the Occupational Physical Aptitude Test (OPAT). Years ago Nick warned the Army that the standards were too low for the OPAT to accomplish its goals, and he took a lot of heat for being publicly critical. Fast forward to today, and the Army Auditing Agency has confirmed he was right, the OPAT accomplished none of its stated goals.

In addition to vindicating Nick, we also take time during this episode to discuss the state of military fitness more broadly, including a chat about World War II standards, things like La Sierra High School PE, and plenty of other good fitness history.

LTC Barringer's original critique of the OPAT: https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2016/10/08/commentary-officer-takes-on-the-army-s-new-opat-and-pulls-no-punches/

Jim Gourley's commentary piece for Tom Ricks' Best Defense Column on Foreign Policy: https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/10/20/major-nick-barringer-says-the-armys-new-opat-is-garbage-but-the-armys-leadership-cant-see-why-that-matters/

DoD Inspector General Semiannual Report to Congress (April - September 2021): on page 54 of this document (page 64 of the pdf) you can finding the excerpt that tipped us off to this OPAT audit: https://media.defense.gov/2021/Nov/30/2002900902/-1/-1/1/SEMIANNUAL%20REPORT%20TO%20THE%20CONGRESS%20%E2%80%93%20APRIL%201,%202021%20THROUGH%20SEPTEMBER%2030,%202021.PDF

Army Audit Agency report on the OPAT (this is the only place this document has been released publicly): https://static1.squarespace.com/static/63ac58edac97035ec3c43c24/t/63e816f419a20621c21f7fe4/1676154615480/Audit+Report+A-2021-0052-FIZ+FOIA+%28002%29_Redacted+%281%29.pdf

July 2018 article claiming that "OPAT reducing trainee attrition, avoiding millions in wasted training dollars, officials say" despite the Army Audit Agency finding that trainee attrition continued to get worse: https://www.army.mil/article/207956/opat_reducing_trainee_attrition_avoiding_millions_in_wasted_training_dollars_officials_say

La Sierra High School PE/The Motivation Factor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fISgKl8dB3M&ab_channel=DougOrchard

This disclaimer applies to every episode, but it's extra important on this one. Everything expressed in this episode reflects only the opinions of the individuals, and does not represent any of the organizations with which they are affiliated.