Occupational test shows strong results in recruit retention

WASHINGTON — Fewer Army recruits are now dropping out of initial military training, preventing the Army from wasting millions in training dollars, said the Army’s senior enlisted advisor.

The results, officials say, show that the Occupational Physical Assessment Test is better preparing recruits for the rigors of training.

“That was the goal,” said Sgt. Maj. of the Army Daniel A. Dailey. “The goal was to get 18- to 24-year-old people more focused on physical fitness instead of showing up on Day 1 of basic training, and saying, ‘Oh my God, I have to do a pushup.’”

Given to recruits to determine their best-fit career field in the Army, OPAT measures muscular strength, muscular endurance, cardiorespiratory endurance, explosive power and speed. Soldiers who decide to reclass to more physically demanding jobs are also required to take the test.

The gender and age neutral test includes four events – a standing long jump, seated power throw, deadlift and interval run – that gauge a recruit’s physical aptitude similar to how the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery assesses mental aptitude.

“OPAT, obviously, is increasing our capability,” Dailey said Monday at a media roundtable inside the Pentagon. “There was no physical assessment prior to OPAT.”

Since January 2017, when the test was first rolled out, the Army has seen an average of about 1,000 fewer trainees leave initial military training early. That’s about a 10 percent overall reduction in attrition.

“We’re saving over 1,000 [trainees] a year,” said Michael McGurk, director of research and analysis at the Army Center for Initial Military Training. Many trainees who drop out, he added, experience some sort of musculoskeletal issue.

It costs between $55,000 to $74,000 to send a recruit through training, depending on if they attend one-station unit training or a combination of basic combat training and advanced individual training.

McGurk said his center uses $50,000 as a general figure for a trainee who fails to complete the training. Using that number, cost avoidance for the Army could be $50 million or more each year.

“We think that’s on the low end,” he said Thursday. “It’s not savings, it’s [cost] avoidance, because no one hands you a check for that money. It’s the car that didn’t break down, the water heater that didn’t explode.”

As more recruits train for the OPAT, scores have also gone up.

When Dailey travels to speak with high school students, he notices many of them are already aware of it.

“The scores on OPAT are getting better and that is simply because the greater population that is propensed to serve in the military know about it and they’re training for it,” he said.

The test is changing how people think about the Army before they sign up, according to McGurk.

“It’s not ‘I’m going to join the Army and get in shape’; it’s ‘I need to get in shape so I can join the Army’,” he said. “That’s the mindset we’re trying to instill in young people. Before you go to training, you’re going to have to get in shape. And that’s a good thing for everybody.”

As part of the Army’s focus on fitness, leaders have developed a new Army Combat Readiness Test that has been piloted at several installations. The six-event assessment gauges Soldiers on the 10 components of physical fitness – muscular strength and endurance, power, speed, agility, aerobic endurance, balance, flexibility, coordination and reaction time.

The new test is designed to reduce injuries and may eventually replace or supplement the current three-event Army Physical Fitness Test. That test has been around since 1980 and only measures muscular and aerobic endurance.

On Monday, the Army also announced a pilot to extend one-station unit training for infantry Soldiers from 14 weeks to 22 weeks.

The pilot, which runs from July to December, will allow Soldiers to get more training sessions on weapons, combatives and combat-lifesaver skills – plus more time for physical fitness.

“We know if we have more time with Soldiers, we can make them more physically capable,” Dailey said.

If results are positive, the OSUT pilot could even convince senior leaders to make basic combat training longer for all Soldiers, he added.