I have a soldier with an ETS date is in 20 days, and the command wants to give him a PT test. Does the soldier have to do it/pass or fail?

He should be held in the books as a loss therefore they don’t need his number to count towards their umbers. They are probably harassing him

This Soldier should have already taken the exit(Army and VA) physical exam and the unit should have the Soldier annotated as a loss. The chain of command must keep in mind that of the Soldier is injured during the APFT and the Soldier chooses to pursue medical care this will push the Soldier past the ETS date. Unless things have changed this is reportable to BDE and DIV because now the unit has a non mission capable individual plus the individual is past the ETS date. My exit physical exams exempted me from taking an APFT and it was annotated in my out processing packet.

They are not supposed to give a pt test. It needs to be no physical activity his last 30 days so he doesn’t hurt himself.

Before I retired, my 1sgt wanted me to take the PT test even though I was already out processing. He and I had bump heads quite a few times. So he lets the company know that I am taking the PT test. The day of the PT test I show up to take it. I have never failed a PT Test in my whole military career. So the first event is the sit ups. I get into position and sit up, I hold that position for 2 minutes and lay down. 1 sit up. The push up is the next event, I get into the start position, time begins, I hold the up position for 1 minute and 50 seconds, go down and come up. 1 push up and time. Time for the run, time starts, i place 1 foot in front of the other and continue for the 2 miles. 3 hrs 15 minutes later I cross the finish line. The company had to stay until the last person cross the finish line. The 1sg was pissed beyond believe, I explained that I was following his orders and doing the PT Test, however he never said I had to pass it. He tried to get me to redo the PT test but the SMG told him to let it go and learn from how he treated those under him.

No, the Soldier is NOT required to take the PT test if they are within 179 days of ETSing. Here's why - 1.) The Soldier should have already cleared their outprocessing medical screening for disability evaluation. 2.) If the Soldier gets hurt during the PT test - then the Soldier will be retained on active duty on medical hold and convalescent leave until the injury has healed or been fixed, and then the Soldier must go through a medical evaluation process again - which may now qualify them for a medical retirement if they reach a disability evaluation of 30% or more.

Your command needs to stop being stupid - and focus on the Soldiers who are remaining in uniform and stop playing the hazing and harassment game with the Soldier who is leaving within days. I would also recommend this Soldier notify the IG about this issue, and file a Congressional complaint as it seems the command is just hazing and harassing them, and the Soldier should also get a profile to be exempt from the PT test. One thing is for certain, the Soldier does not have to take the PT test, but is also sounds like the command may want to use that as justification to give the Soldier a General Discharge or not give them an award for their service.

This is the reason the Army has a hard time keeping good Soldiers or recruiting now - word about this kind of ridiculous behavior by senior leaders gets out and it makes people think the Army is being ran by a Frat House Crew. If I were the O-6 or CG of this unit, I would fire the unit leaders for this kind of non-sense as they clearly are not focused on taking care of Soldiers, takong care of the mission, and ensuring those who have served are fully prepared to leave the Army when it comes their time to do so - either by end of service obligation or by retirement or by medical discharge or medical retirement.

If I were this young soldier, I would show up as ordered and do the test. But I would probably have a terrible spill on the run and hurt myself to the point of being on medical hold (all faked of course). And then write my Congressmen and Senators and demand an investigation be done as to why I was forced to do it with only 20 days out. And have Mommy and Daddy call and complain while also contacting the representatives in Washington.

Does "the command" want him to take one, or someone between him and the command team? Ninety percent of the time when Soldiers say, "My chain of command said (insert asinine requirement)..." they really mean a team leader or squad leader, who either doesn't understand the Commanders intent, or doesn't want to bother to ask for an exception that makes good sense.

As your your question, yes they have to, and yes they can still he flagged, and that would affect their ability to join the RC and would give them an RE3 on their 214.

You won't find anything anywhere in writing that says no APFT within X number of days of ETS, because it's not a real thing. It's more of a custom and tradition. Even when I separated in 2000 the norm was no PT after your ETS physical. But you won't find that written as a rule anywhere.

Its harassment plain in simple. Pencil whip one up to appease the toxic leadership.
SFC (ret)

Every so often a question gets posted here along the lines of " Why are young troops not staying in the military ?" There are no less than six responses to this initial question as to the very reason such things continue.

Its BS like this that gives the Army a black eye. And command wonders why they struggle with attraction and retention. This kind of nonsense gets passed around.