Patient: “I think I’m having a heart attack.”
Nurse: “You are! Let me get you our best Doctor to do Surgery.”
Patient: “No! I want the one who barely passed. Who just minimally meets the standard. Is he in?”
This might as well be the majority of Soldiers I have come across conducting the ACFT (now the AFT) in the more recent years. Whiskey Tengo Foxtrot, Over? My last three PT test I have witnessed (Hand to God) Soldiers saying, “Hey Big Sarge, what’s the minimum I have to do?” Then they do that exact minimum and proceed to the next event, even though they were fully capable of doing SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER! Who the heck wants this person in their formation!? I certainly don’t.
I don’t want a bunch of minimally achieving Soldiers trying to fight and win our nation’s wars. I want some highly motivated, highly dedicated, high-speed killing machines ready to push themselves to brink of exhaustion, only to dig deeper, find another gear and push even farther. AND YOU DO TO! Don’t sit there, scrolling through this post on your phone while you sit on the toilet and pretend to not want the best people you can possibly get in your formation. And this doesn’t just apply to the combat arms MOS. I want the best 42A I can get. I want the best 74D I can get. I want the best (insert any Army job) I can get, because every job is important!
So, be the example. Don’t settle for the minimum. Go “full send” on whatever you do. Shame those who say they are going to do the minimum. Make them feel small and shameful (because they are). It’s called positive peer pressure, and we need more of it in the Army. What is the Spirit of the bayonet? To KILL, KILL, KILL, without mercy! It’s not to stab a man the minimal amount of times with the minimum force necessary. However, once these shameful offenders repent and put forth a worthy effort, accept them back into the fold. And then spread the word…the minimum will not be tolerated in this organization. All I want, is everything you’ve got!