Air Force says viral ‘combat fitness’ memo isn’t real

A memo circulating on social media that purportedly outlines a new, hardcore fitness test for to the Air Force’s physical fitness policy is not authentic, Air Force spokesperson Ann Stefanek said on Monday.

Over the weekend, the undated memo was posted on unofficial Reddit and Facebook pages. It claimed that airmen who score 90 points or higher on the service’s new PT test would only have to take the test once a year and could also opt out of the 2-mile run. It also purportedly included details of a new “Combat Readiness Test.”

But Stefanek said on Monday that the memo is not an official Air Force document.

‘Combat’ fitness tests mandated by Hegseth

The Combat Readiness Test described in the memo would be a functional fitness-style test and appears to be aimed at meeting a requirement set out by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in a Sept. 30 speech to general officers in Quantico, Virginia. In that speech, Hegseth announced — and laid out in a follow-up memo — a multi-tier fitness system to apply across the military.

Troops in combat arms — such as pararescue and combat control in the Air Force, along with traditional infantry roles in the Army and Marines — would take a Combat Field Test each year. All other active duty troops would take one service fitness test — likely traditional running and calisthenics — and then also take a new Combat Readiness Test, taken in a full combat uniform and made up of ‘functional fitness’ events like lifting weights and buddy carries.

Top Stories This Week

Each service, Hegseth’s memo said, would design its own readiness and traditional tests, with the option to use a traditional fitness test in place of the combat-focused one.

“These tests, they’ll look familiar,” Hegseth said in Quantico. “They’ll resemble the Army Expert Physical Fitness Assessment, or the Marine Corps Combat Fitness Test.”

The Combat Readiness Test described in the memo would purportedly require airmen to lift a 40-pound kettlebell multiple times; move a dummy weighing as much as 180 pounds up to 50 feet; pullups; and carry two 30-pound ammunition cans 50 feet and then placing both on a 4-foot platform.

A copy of the fraudulent memo posted to the Air Force amn/nco/snco Facebook page.

For combat arms troops, the memo also mentions that Pentagon officials are “assessing the feasibility” of a Joint Combat Field Test that would be standard for all combat-arms roles across the military.

Officials say memo is not authentic

Stefanek told Task & Purpose that the Air Force’s most recent fitness test update was the Sept. 24 announcement about changes to the service’s PT test.

That announcement confirmed that airmen will have to run 2 miles as part of the new fitness test, an increase from the 1.5-mile timed run that airmen must complete for the current fitness test. Airmen will also be required to take the new PT test twice a year.

Top Stories This Week

While airmen will have the option of taking an alternative exercise for the PT test’s cardiorespiratory component, they must still complete the 2-mile run at least once a year.

The Air Force will pause all fitness tests starting on Jan. 1 as it begins to transition to the service’s new test, which will begin next March 1. Commanders can now order units to conduct mass testing during the annual testing cycles, which run from September to March and March to September.

No information about the origins of the debunked memo was immediately available on Monday. The document appears to be signed by Gwendolyn DeFilippi​, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for manpower and reserve affairs. The header and signature, along with most of the formatting of the content, match other memos sent and signed by DeFilippi, except that the posted document does not have a date at the top.

A Reddit user told Task & Purpose that they shared the document from DeFilippi on the unofficial Air Force subreddit page after seeing it posted on Facebook. The user deleted the post after being informed that the Air Force says it is not genuine.