I'm with Adam. If we truly have an expeditionary army, then everyone must be capable of the minimum of physical exertion. Yeah, you're only a ...... (Patriot missile maintenance unit anyone?) but, push comes to shove, you need to be able to fight.

SPJONeill, your mindset is indicative of the mindset we had to get rid of from the US Army after 2003.

That isn't to say that individual units shouldn't set higher standards, based on the unit mission, but in the units I've been in, the unit standard was a single standard, regardless of age/gender, not age- and gender-normed, like the APFT is. An example is the XVIII ABN Corps 20km footmarch standard- the standard is 4 hours, with 35lb pack, weapon, helmet and LBE, regardless of age and/or gender. That said, IN (and other combat arms units) hold themselves to significantly higher standards.