What are the APFT standards for BLC? Is it 60 in each category or is it 70?

Bottom line is passing is passing.

Sergeant Major, its responses like yours that makes the military inconsistent. Just like a DA photo shouldn't be the deciding factor in a promotion the same can be said for PT scores. A pass is a pass and a fail is a fail, bottom line. There's more to being a leader than maxing or 80% in every category for PT.

SSG (Join to see), you are right there is a lot more to being a leader than a good PT score. The point is the mindset! I would much rather be led by someone who was aspiring to be the best they could than someone who was just trying to meet the minimum standards. Why shouldn’t a DA photo or PT score be the deciding factor? Granted you are comparing two Soldiers who “equal” in all other aspects how do you choose which one gets the one promotion you have? If one has a slightly better PT score, but the other has everything perfect on the uniform in the DA photo, who do you pick? I would pick the one with the squared away uniform, because that’s the one who either cares more or has better attention to detail. Mindset maters!

Sergeant Major, good morning. My DA Photo issue is our budgeting. Most like myself had to buy it. leadership knows about it and they pretty much said if you want the promotion bad enough you have to pay for it on your own. I got a star card and paid for it. Others cant afford it. To me if the supply system can't get it and there's proof that the order has been submitted then that should be good enough. I've seen horrible soldiers get the promotion over guys who have way more leadership credentials just because of a DA Photo. I'm on the Guard side now, I know on the active side you have a clothing allowance, but not the reserves or guard. As for the PT test, its a broken system. To me when you have an older person passing why should that not be good enough? Its pretty much impossible to not give it your all for a PT Test and pass. Even if you stop at a certain number for pushups and sit ups. Yes if there's a tie for a promotion then for sure PT test HT/WT and uniform should be the tie breakers. However I ask, borderline beg leadership like yourself to look at the whole picture. What's the age bracket for the PT test scores? Gender bias? Uniform money issue. I believe in combat experience. Would you promote someone if there's a tie because of a better score and uniform if that person never deployed?

SSG (Join to see), fair point. I’m in the Reserves myself now and fully understand where you are coming from with the lack of clothing allowance and having to buy ASU’s which are very expensive. I see the failure of the supply system as a greater leadership failure. It is currently broken, until it is fixed, the Soldier may need to buy the ASU’s if they want to be considered for promotion. At the same time if you know you don’t have something that should be issued to you, you should be harassing your Supply NCO, and leadership well ahead of needing it. You said combat experience and deployed, as if they are one in the same. I believe greatly in combat experience, but being deployed doesn’t mean you have combat experience. Simply being deployed holds little weight for me, I know not everyone is a trigger puller, but there are also lots of “trigger pullers” who sat on a FOB and did garrison duty in country the whole time, that is not combat experience. That being said if the tie breaker was a better PT score or uniform vs combat experience, 9 times out of 10 the combat experienced Soldier would have won earlier in the process, most likely based on something in an NCOER. If it was between PT or uniform vs deployed, the deployed would lose every time.

Fair enough. Each BLC has different standards then is what I’m understanding from that. By chance do you know the one at Fort Carson specifically?

CPL (Join to see) - Unfortunately, I do not.

BLC is an NCOES school and thereby is mandated at the Army Standard 60 points in each event. This is mandated by Army, not the school commandant. All NCOES schools must follow the regulation. That being said your unit or post may recommend a minimum before sending you (usually 70), to ensure that you will successfully complete the course. Bottom line the standard is the standard.