SANTA RITA, GUAM—Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Terry Scott stressed the importance of physical readiness for all sailors, and announced the development of a revision to the Physical Readiness Program instruction during an all-hands call aboard Naval Base Guam in early April.
According to a Navy report, Scott said the number of sailors failing the Physical Readiness Test (PRT) is too high.
“I’m concerned about the health and fitness of our force,” Scott said (see photo of Scott speaking to a group of Master-at-Arms during his visit to Guam -- U.S. Navy photo by Journalist 2nd Class Bradan W. Schulze.) “We need to get back to a culture of fitness in our Navy.”
He added that staying fit is not an option if sailors want to stay in the Navy. Some of the latest figures show that more than 11,500 sailors have failed more than three PRTs, which in his opinion, “is not acceptable.”
In the 1990s the Navy started requiring physical training at least three times a week, but Scott said he doesn’t feel that policy is being adhered to fleet wide, the report said. He called upon chief petty officers to help along with changing policy to allow the authority to separate sailors from the Navy after failing three PRTs. However, he hopes it doesn’t come to that before sailors become more fit.
“I don’t want to lose a single sailor because of PRT failure,” he said. “What I do want, and what the Navy is serious about having, is a healthy and fit force. Don’t wait for the changes to be made to the current instruction. The time to start getting ready is now.”