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The academic track accepts those who score between a 21 and 31 on the Armed Forces Qualification Test, scores that place them within Category IV of the military\u2019s tiered aptitude measurement system. AFQT scores, which max out at 99, measure general academic aptitude relative to others who take the test. That means a person who scores a 99 has performed better than 99% of test takers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the FSPC, academic trainees receive instruction intended to help them improve their scores enough to enter Category IIIB, which is for those who score between a 32 and 49.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Army Times reported the service\u2019s plans to establish the FSPC on July 18<\/a>, a week before senior officials announced the initiative<\/a>. An Army Times reporter embedded with students at the course \u2014 from Aug. 22-23 \u2014 to document its early days, interviewing more than two dozen people ranging from trainees to commanders and medical providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We found scenes that leaders involved in the initiative acknowledged could be shocking to those who reminisce about their brutal experiences in reception or basic training. But the two Special Forces officers calling the shots on the ground are confident their approach will prevail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If early data is any indication \u2014 the experiment just might work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to installation spokesperson LA Sully, the 141 trainees enrolled in the academic track class beginning Aug. 8 improved their AFQT scores by an average of 19.8 points. One soldier even scored an 88.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Out of the first class of fitness course trainees, 58 of 97 have \u201cmet standard and entered [basic training],\u201d after just two weeks there, Sully added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fort Jackson\u2019s outgoing commander, Brig. Gen. Patrick Michaelis, explained that \u201cthis is a small sample, but we are encouraged by the results.\u201d The former deputy head of Army Recruiting Command will soon leave the Army to lead the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M University \u2014 where he earned his commission in 1993.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The service\u2019s chief of staff, Gen. James McConville, characterized the data as \u201cvery impressive\u201d in a phone interview with Army Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Echoing the post commander, the general cautioned that he didn\u2019t want to \u201coversell\u201d the raw preliminary data, which comes from a very small sample size and hasn\u2019t yet been analyzed, but said \u201cI think there\u2019s something here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Army needs there to be \u201csomething here\u201d as it scrambles to maintain end strength amid the most challenging recruiting environment since the draft ended in 1973. The numbers forecast is so dire that the service is considering structure changes to its combat formations.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Service leaders think the prep course can help the Army mitigate two societal trends: the deepening childhood obesity epidemic and a post-pandemic drop in test scores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Only 23% of age-eligible Americans are medically or morally qualified to join the military, Army leaders have argued, and obesity is one of the largest medical factors constricting that pool. The percentage of eligible youth is declining, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And in July, Army Training and Doctrine Command deputy commander Lt. Gen. Maria Gervais told reporters that AFQT-takers were performing dismally after years of virtual schooling \u2014 with an average drop of nine points since the pandemic began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Army\u2019s spinning the prep course as an \u201cinvestment in America\u2019s youth,\u201d according to TRADOC\u2019s tagline<\/a>, because it can\u2019t fix the societal problems that have exacerbated the recruiting crisis \u2014 but it can respond to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n McConville said senior leaders \u201care certainly thinking about expanding the numbers at Fort Jackson.\u201d If the data supports the move, he \u201ccould see\u201d the program expanding to training at Fort Benning, Georgia; Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri; and Fort Sill, Oklahoma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At Fort Jackson, then, the stakes couldn\u2019t be higher. The pilot program, which senior leaders are closely monitoring with intent to expand across training posts if effective, is seen as the most ambitious, most promising initiative yet to help the service put a dent in the looming personnel shortfall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Michaelis said the decision will \u201cprobably\u201d come in October whether to establish \u201csimilar capability\u201d at the other posts in spring 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The officials on the ground leading the course think there\u2019s a chance to inspire even greater changes to how the service welcomes new soldiers as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trainees who arrive at the academic track find a fledgling \u201cmilitary campus environment\u201d along the installation\u2019s Golden Arrow Road, as the course\u2019s battalion commander described it, that radically departs from the traditions of basic training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It starts with a pair of \u201ctransformational leaders,\u201d as McConville described them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lt. Col. Dan Hayes, the commander of 1st Battalion, 61st Infantry, and \u201cTask Force Opportunity,\u201d knows a thing or two about training environments. And his commander, Col. Kent Solheim of the 165th Infantry Brigade, knows a thing or two about challenging fitness training and programming. Both units typically oversee basic training \u2014 the prep course is new ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before the Green Beret took over 1-61, Hayes oversaw the Special Operations Forces Captains Career Course while assigned to Fort Bragg\u2019s John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, commonly known as SWCS. He also held three company commands in 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group, and completed an Army Congressional Fellowship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Solheim, who was described as \u201cCaptain America\u201d by Medal of Honor recipient Capt. Florent Groberg in a Jan. 4 Havok Journal interview<\/a>, is a Green Beret and fitness enthusiast who had to re-learn how to remain active after gunshot wounds sustained in a 2007 firefight in Karbala, Iraq, eventually led to the amputation of his right leg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This isn\u2019t Hayes and Solheim\u2019s first rodeo together, either. For most of Hayes\u2019 post-Congress stint at 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group, when he commanded two companies and served as the unit\u2019s operations officer, Solheim was his battalion commander.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Michaelis, the post commander, hailed Solheim as \u201cone of the most forward-thinking officers we have on this post\u2026who can think big and [also] execute at the tactical level.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fitness track trainees currently fall under the 120th Adjutant General Battalion\u2019s fitness training company, but soon they too will move to 1-61\u2032s campus and its more relaxed environment. The fitness training company already had a similarly loose approach for its preexisting mission to rehabilitate injured trainees and harden those whose drill sergeants fear they may fail training events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both Hayes and Solheim emphasized the importance of establishing a supportive learning environment for the prep course \u2014 a sharp contrast to the \u201cbreak them down to build them back up\u201d philosophy that\u2019s long influenced basic training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The battalion\u2019s drill sergeants have traded in their distinctive brown round campaign hats for black baseball caps that echo the expertise signified by instructor hats at schools around the Army, like those worn by Fort Benning\u2019s airborne school cadre. At the prep course, the hats signify that the wearer has completed courses to become academic tutors who are also fitness and resiliency training-certified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Officers who are temporarily teaching the classes don the hats, too. They\u2019re providing instruction while the service works to hire more civilian and contract instructors, officials said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The top enlisted soldier in 1-61, Command Sgt. Maj. Stuart Sword, described the headgear swap as \u201csymbolic\u2026[of] a temperament change within the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n One senior drill sergeant from the unit currently running the fitness course, Sgt. 1st Class Rose Herrera, acknowledged that the campaign hat \u201csymbolizes authority [and] instilling discipline.\u201d But she thinks the move to black hats is necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBy removing that hat\u2026[we\u2019re] symbolically changing the way that trainees will look at this person in front of [them] now,\u201d she said. \u201c\u2018Maybe I\u2019ll let my guard down a little bit. Maybe I don\u2019t have to be so afraid. Maybe it\u2019s okay for me to ask questions\u2026because this [drill sergeant] looks like a person I can actually ask questions to.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Solheim was quick to highlight it as well, noting the significance of reducing the \u201cintimidation factor\u201d that the classic campaign hat can have on trainees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The change in approach goes beyond just the headgear. Especially in 1-61\u2032s facilities, there\u2019s little of the yelling common in basic training \u2014 our reporter did not witness any during the two-day embed period, for which Army Times was the only media present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s a campus-style learning situation where it\u2019s not as much \u2018in-your-face\u2019 yelling,\u201d explained Maj. Chris Wedge, who is a Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) team leader for the 165th Infantry Brigade. \u201cIt\u2019s more of, \u2018Hey, how do I help you achieve this goal of [moving on to basic training] and becoming a soldier?\u2019 There are going to be some inherent interaction changes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not all drill sergeants can easily remove the hat, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sword, the 1-61 sergeant major, told Army Times that one of his biggest challenges was ensuring that the unit\u2019s drill sergeants believed in the concept and were willing to embrace the temperament shift that\u2019s \u201cconducive to an adult learning environment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said that some drill sergeants who didn\u2019t believe in the idea were swapped out with others who \u201creally bought into the program.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Herrera, the senior drill sergeant, said she had to pull aside one of her subordinates, who had volunteered first for drill sergeant duty and again later to join the fitness training company, to make sure he was on board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe [said],\u2019I don\u2019t think I could do this, this is not what I became a drill sergeant for,\u2019\u201d she recalled. \u201cI was like, \u2018Well, why did you [volunteer]?\u2019 [He said], \u2018Because I want to make soldiers better.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Herrera said he came around after she explained that even though the methods are different, the goal is the same. \u201cWe are trying to get these civilians to become soldiers,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trainees in the academic track have unprecedented privileges compared to typical trainees, thanks to Fort Jackson leaders\u2019 commitment to the campus environment philosophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The hopeful soldiers have more regular access to their cell phones, explained Sword \u2014 \u201c30 minutes to an hour per day,\u201d that instructors intend as a \u201cdecompression mechanism\u201d from their academic stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They also have unstructured physical training every afternoon, according to Hayes. Army Times observed a session in which instructors played pickup football and volleyball with the recruits. On the other side of the field, a lively soccer game broke out \u2014 a scene perhaps never before witnessed along Golden Arrow Road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every Army official \u2014 including senior leaders \u2014 who spoke with Army Times about the prep course emphasized the need for a different approach, even if it departs from established norms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the classroom, though, instructors are leaning on curriculum material that the service has previously developed to help soldiers with their test scores and fitness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The academic track is modeled after the Army\u2019s long-running Basic Skills Education Program, which offers math and English instruction to already-serving troops in order to improve their test scores and expand their career opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The service has shifted some civilian BSEP instructors to Fort Jackson to launch the course alongside the black hat instructors while a contractor works to hire additional civilian instructors to expand the pilot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The curriculum touches on reading comprehension, vocabulary, algebra and geometry. AFQT improvement courses aren\u2019t new, but 1-61\u2032s Sword pointed out that the prep course is the earliest they\u2019ve ever been available in a soldier\u2019s career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 1-61 campus is also \u201ccompletely wireless [internet-enabled],\u201d explained post commander Michaelis. That allows trainees to use Army-issued tablets to study in the evenings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over at the fitness course\u2019s temporary home at the 120th AG Battalion\u2019s fitness training company, trainees don\u2019t just exercise all day. In fact, they\u2019re limited to two PT periods per day \u2014 their 6 a.m. session is usually more rigorous, with the afternoon workout focused on lower-impact exercises such as running form instruction, low intensity cardio or stability work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the day, trainees attend classes on nutrition, healthy habits and resilience meant to help them achieve a healthier lifestyle so their body changes can stick. They also keep food journals and have one-on-one meetings with dieticians and nutritionists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Course instructors include H2F officials who are subject matter experts in their field, who supplement the company\u2019s drill sergeants and officers. All of the unit\u2019s cadre members have a fitness training certification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Army Times observed a class on macronutrients taught by the company commander, Capt. Remedios Timo-Dondoyano. She helped the trainees understand which nutrients they needed and why, as well as the healthiest ways to consume each of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe deficiency [in the trainees\u2019 knowledge] I noticed was how do you actually have a more mindful way of eating? How do you actually understand what quality food means?\u201d Timo-Dondoyano, a physical therapist with several fitness training certifications, said. \u201cThis is more than just food in and food out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nEarly data promising<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Building a \u2018military campus environment\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Inside the curriculum<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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