big kahuna wrote:
Active combat ("real combat") is its own fitness check, believe me. It's been my experience that the fitter you are, the more effective you'll be in ground combat and special operations-related combat activities and the greater will be your chances of survival.
I've never been the military, but I've worked with some Rangers and special warfare types, and they said physical fitness is huge in places like Afghanistan. And it's the opposite of what you might think. You'd think the Afghan fighters who grew up in the mountains would have an advantage, being skinny, well-acclimated, and not weighed down by all the shit in the modern foot-soldier's kit (which is seriously a lot of stuff). But apparently western/modern warfighters are just so much healthier and better fed that when it comes down to speed or endurance on foot, we still win almost every time. I think their rule of thumb was something like 15 minutes. E.g. if some dudes were trying to escape by running through mountain terrain, they'd be good for 15 minutes, then they'd be done.
Of course the guys I was talking to were far from average.