ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

With a new focus on functional combat fitness training, the U.S. Army Infantry School has modified the physical fitness assessment for students attending the Ranger Course.

Formally known as the Ranger Physical Fitness Assessment, the assessment will still require students to perform a 5-mile run and six chin-ups, but it no longer includes situps and pushups, according to a Maneuver Center of Excellence news release.

The recruiting program that enlists civilians to become Green Beret candidates “is critical to Special Forces,” the commander of U.S. Army Special Operations Command said.

Known by the MOS 18X, the Special Forces candidate program enlists young people to help build the force rather than recruiting only from within the ranks, Lt. Gen. Jonathan Braga said. Soldiers who joined the Army through the 18X program and made it through the long and arduous path to become Green Berets, he said, “make up over 50% of the force.”

In February, the Association of the U.S. Army’s “Army Matters” podcast will highlight the incredible stories of a colonel who’s using data to fight the enemy and a veteran who overcame a tough transition to civilian life and now helps others find their way.

A “convergence” of adversaries is threatening global security, a development made more complex by the proliferation of battlefield technology and commercial disruptions, a senior Army officer said.

Gen. Bryan Fenton, commanding general of U.S. Special Operations Command, said he sees the security environment through three lenses, the first of which is the volatile alliance formed among the adversaries of the United States and its allies.

Retired Col. Ralph Puckett, a legendary and revered Army Ranger who fought in Korea and Vietnam, died April 8. He was 97.

Puckett, an inaugural member of the Ranger Hall of Fame, was awarded the Medal of Honor in May 2021, more than 70 years after leading the 8th Army Ranger Company to capture a frozen hilltop near the Chinese border during the Korean War.