I remember a small, wiry, former-sniper friend of mine noting that none of the big, strong guys made it very far in the evasion portion of SERE school. So, sneaking around at night with no food is another test that favors the small guys. (I don’t think I’ve met a big sniper or SOF guy yet, now that I think about it.)

2. RIP is deprecated, current program is RASP, seems very well thought out and executed. Read the book Sua Sponte for an update and a more recent fitness test/regime (Someone sent us to that book after this post).

3. Relatively few of the dropouts from Ranger School (which is not the same thing as Ranger Regiment or the Battalions, it’s a school that many combat arms officers and NCOs attend) fail at PT per se. There is a PT test at the beginning of the course, and a few guys are not prepared and get sent home. Most of the attrition comes from students quitting or failing to meet standards.

4. Everyone is expecting standards to be lowered across the board prior to the admission of women to combat units, to ensure that the women pass. This has been signalled by the retention of GEN Dempsey, who supports doing it that way, as chairman of the JCS.

Another insight I remember from the Pemrick paper was that some tests really wrung out the small guys and others the large ones. It makes sense. A 20 mile ruck race sucks more if you’re 5’2″ and 135, and a Prussik climb sucks more if you’re 6’5″ and 280. (In fact, there’s few such large guys in Army SOF units, although lots of small wiry ones). Since SOF units are just that, units, they can play to the strengths of different men and their different body types. No doubt they will make the best of the coming distaff contingent, although the increased number of weaker men who only meet the new “lady standards” will be a problem.