That triggered a thought - Maybe the 'personal responsibility' refers to the effort each soldier should put in to their phys, and to attend phys sessions, during Army time.
Exactly.
100% spot on.
Despite the 'dumb's and 'disagrees' to my OP, and the disagreements and going round in circles since, I
think this is possibly one of the few threads (at least where I've posted) where everyone posting, whatever their / our initial views
seems now in broad agreement ....
Fitness, like any other military skill / requirement, needs input from both the Army and the soldier to meet the required standards, whether those standards are the Army's or the unit's:
The Army needs to provide:
- The expertise.
- The facilities.
- The training.
- The supervision.
- The time, and ...
- The motivation (carrot and stick).
The individual soldier needs to provide:
- The interest.
- The effort, and ...
- The motivation (pride).
Where we may differ is over who's failed to meet their obligations.
To me the Army's failed to provide adequate time in most units (worst of all in HQ, CS and CSS units) so it's become the norm for many soldiers to have to train in their own time, failed to provide the supervision as much of that training in soldiers' own time is unsupervised or undirected, and failed to provide the expertise (if what some serving have said happens is the norm).
Worst of all, the Army's completely failed to provide any motivation. There's no carrot because there's no incentive beyond pride, and if anything there's a dis-incentive as the fit end up carrying the un-fit and doing their job for them; and there's no stick because it doesn't matter if you're unfit or on a biff-chit, you'll still be paid the same and play sport, do AT and be promoted, and even if you're on remedial PT you're excused normal PT.
Some soldiers may have failed to do their part but, given the Army's failures, I think the Army has a lot more to answer for than the soldiers and there's no sign at all of any of that changing, despite THOR, despite 'personalised' programmes, and despite revised PFAs / AFTs / PESs.