92nd EN BN Introduces New ACFT Field to Fort Stewart

Photo By Spc. Noelle Wiehe | Soldiers with the 92nd Engineer Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division build a field March 2 where Soldiers can train on and conduct the new Army Combat Fitness Test on Fort Stewart.  

FORT STEWART, GA, UNITED STATES

04.02.2020

Story by Spc. Noelle Wiehe 

Fort Stewart Public Affairs Office

FORT STEWART, Ga. – Soldiers of the 92nd Engineer Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division, built a field suitable for the Army Combat Fitness Test. The field was created to administer physical training tests to as many Soldiers as possible in 1 hour and 30 minutes.

The ACFT is designed to improve Soldier and unit readiness, transform the Army’s fitness culture, reduce preventable injuries and attrition, and enhance mental toughness and stamina. The new test consists of six exercises: three-repetition maximum deadlift, standing power throw, hand-release push-ups, leg tuck, sprint-drag-carry and a two-mile run.

“My team and I started this project in July [2019] because we saw that 3rd ID needed to conduct two diagnostic ACFT tests in fiscal year 2020 and there was not a site to administer the ACFT,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Mario Sanchez, a construction engineer technician, 92nd Eng. Bn., 3rd ID. “To design this, we looked at the ACFT grading requirements and field requirements to do a test and made the design for this field.”

The designed field has 20 lanes. Each lane can support four Soldiers at a time with one grader.

“Although we came up with a design in July, in November, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers came up with a standard design for ACFT fields across the Army,” Sanchez said. “With the Corps of Engineers’ design, you have to finish the entire ACFT before another iteration can start.”

Sanchez added the design of 20 lanes with two ACFT iterations pushes 160 Soldiers through, whereas the Corps of Engineer’s design only pushes 64 Soldiers through.

Chief Warrant Officer 2 Julius Amenya, a construction engineering technician assigned to 526th Engineer Company, 92nd Eng. Bn., 3rd ID, helped build the field. He says that because Soldiers do not take the ACFT on a daily basis, he is available to offer insight on how everything is supposed to go and make sure the field is up to standard.

“This is the only ACFT field on 3rd ID,” Amenya said. “If we get another site to build all of this, there is a possibility that we can make it even better and quicker than this one because this one is the first.”

Units can request to use the ACFT field through Range Facility Management Support System once 3rd ID signs for the land.

• Date Taken: 04.02.2020
• Date Posted: 04.02.2020 10:38
• Story ID: 366422
• Location: FORT STEWART, GA, US