What should the physical requirements for 68 W be?

24 years I served as a medic. Never, even when I served with the Infantry, did I need to carry 98 lbs worth of gear. EFMB, EIB, Best Warrior, and several other badges and qualifications I can't think of right now, have road march requirements. I know the EFMB is a 12 mile march in under 3 or 4 hours(it's been awhile), but the pack is no where near 98 lbs.

If I had to guess, these new MOS specific physical requirements are nothing more than an other tool to kick good soldiers to the curb.

That is good for FORSCOM 68W. A bit overkill for MEDCOM 68W.

As a Line Medic, we owe it to our platoon to be able to perform physically no matter the challenge. As someone above noted, a MEDCOM medic is a whole different job and that's why I'd like to see there be two different MOSs developed. Make hospital personnel accountable to the tasks they need to be able to do best, and leave the Doc's in the platoon to conduct POI medicine.

Short answer? No it's not unfairly diffucult. Every medic should be prepared to find themselves in a line platoon; however the reality is not everyone who holds the MOS 68W is cut out to be a line Doc.

Good to see that some part of the Army has decided to step up the physical requirements.

98 lbs of gear plus the option of moving a human adult weighing around 200lbs with their gear or less/more if a civilian? The unit I went to the ME with was smart. They either brought me to the person(s) or them to me; which we were in a safer place. I'm an easy target trying to move a person into position to pick them up.
All soldiers should be able to ruck with their standard loadout according to to their MOS. I've never carried 100 lbs of gear wherever we went. As a medic: M4, 280 rounds, 9mm w/4 clips, body armor, helmet, Assault bag and 30lb Aid bag. I'm not in anymore, but should a soldier come under fire, he/she needs to take cover or run their a** off. It's harder to do weighed down with un-necessary stuff.

absolutely needed. no one should die over political correctness. strength is an important military attribute. you need to be able to meet the standard not have the standard meet you.

Sounds like we will breed strong medics, but doesn't always mean smart ones. There are usually enough backs to carry the meat when you need them, but not always the sharpest tool making the plan. I would rather weed out the daft rather than the weak.

In 2003, the Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL) did an analysis of the loads expected by various aspects of the Modern Warrior. The typical Rifle Platoon Approach Combat Load weighed 91.7lbs. It also noted, that many medics tended to overfill their bags (especially the larger MOLLE Aid Bag), and increased their burden.

I can see why a line combat medic would need to meet these requirements.

The PDF is an interesting and useful read: (I had to disable the link to prevent this site from trying to display the entire 117 page document. If you want to read it, you will need to add the second backslash (/) after the "http:" on the link below.
http:/thedonovan.com/archives/modernwarriorload/ModernWarriorsCombatLoadReport.pdf

My first thought: Holy crap! They're going to need their own medics!

I continue to bring this topic up to everyone that I can: the Army needs to (must and should!) separate "Line Medics" and "Hospital Medics". I brought this up last time I saw CSM Ecker, and he said it was not possible for a number of reasons.
In the ten years I have served in the medical field since leaving the infantry, I have become of the opinion that our medics serving in hospitals are not allowed the scope of practice that they need to maintain their medical skills, nor, given the schedules they work, are they able to devote the necessary time needed to physical fitness, Soldiering skills, and/or continuing education.