Do You Have What it Takes to be a Marine?

WASHINGTON – So you want to be one of the few and the proud in the U.S. Marine Corps?

Getting into a combat job requires recruits to pass a new set of physical standards that were put into place as part of the move to allow women to compete for frontline posts.

How do you measure up?

Initial Strength Test for incoming recruits:

For non-combat jobs, recruits must complete:

Two pull-ups (for men) or a flexed arm hang for at least 12 seconds (for women)

44 crunches in two minutes

1.5 mile run in 13:30 minutes (men) or 15 minutes (women)

For combat jobs:

Three pull-ups (men and women)

44 crunches in two minutes

45 lifts of a 30-pound ammunition can in two minutes

1.5 mile run in 13:30 minutes

Classification Standard test for combat jobs. Recruits must pass this test between 55-60 days into basic training in order to move into a combat job:

Six pull-ups

Three-mile run in no more than 24:51 minutes

60 lifts of a 30-pound ammunition can

Movement to contact test in 3:26 minutes, including a half-mile run in combat boots

Manoeuvr under fire test in 3:12 minutes, including belly crawl, ammunition can carry, evacuate a casualty, grenade throw

Combat Job Specific Testing: In order to get a specific infantry, armour, reconnaissance, combat engineer or other combat job, recruits must also complete tests that are unique to each post. Some examples include:

Scale a 56-inch wall carrying a rifle and wearing a fighting load in 30 seconds

While wearing fighting load and carrying rifle and 60 mm mortar, rush for 200 metres through an agility course in 1:45 minutes

Clean-and-press 115-pound Olympic bar

Deadlift and hold 150-pound Olympic bar at knuckle height for 30 seconds

Run 20 kilometres (about 12.5 miles) with rifle while wearing reconnaissance gear in 3 hours

Disassemble/assemble an M242 25 mm automatic gun in 3:21 minutes