USAG Stuttgart command team talks readiness, lethality during AFT

It was quiet, dark, damp, 6 a.m., Oct. 20, at U.S. Army Garrison Stuttgart's Panzer Kaserne, where a handful of noncommissioned officers were getting ready to score the garrison command team on the Army Fitness Test (AFT).

With wet leaves on the ground and chilly air highlighting warm breath as puffs of steam, the Soldiers worked quickly during the brief window of time before the base comes alive with morning commuters. They were in a building known as the "clamshell" where the light escaping from the bay door bounced off the wet asphalt outside-and they could be heard measuring distances, snapping score sheets into clipboards and loading weights onto hexagonal bars-from a long way off. Their voices carried almost a block away, the tones excited, focused, competent.

The AFT is a battery of five events: deadlift, pushup, sprint-drag-carry, plank and two-mile run. Together they offer a universal measure for how physically fit a Soldier is. The test is required twice a year to ensure continued readiness and lethality.

"This is a great setup in here, it is perfect for the first events" said USAG Stuttgart Garrison Commander Col. Edward J. Sanford, referring to the clamshell which features artificial turf critical to the AFT's sprint-drag-carry event.

Sanford was standing alongside USAG Stuttgart Command Sergeant Major Chris Melendez, while both stretched and focused on the upcoming test. They were clad in unit-authorized PT gear, featuring the garrison's logo and motto of Where Mission Meets Home.

Melendez thanked the Soldiers who had set up the test and were preparing to grade his first event, the deadlift. Two other Soldiers would test alongside them that morning, offering healthy competition for the leadership team.

"I know it is a small group today, but you guys are absolutely essential to the mission, and we couldn't do this without you," Melendez said.

USAG Stuttgart has several hundred personnel, but few of them are active-duty Soldiers as it is a mostly civilian organization. The Religious Support Office, Headquarters and Headquarters Company and some law enforcement assigned to Directorate of Emergency Services make up the bulk of what are referred to as green suiters.

"I love getting back to things like this," Sanford said. "Not only do I love the fitness side, but it always serves as a gut-check to remind me to stay prepared, ready, lethal."

Strengths and ability were on full display, with no single tester dominating their counterparts. Strength in the deadlift didn't outpace contemporaries on a two-mile run, and the longest plank didn't translate to a faster sprint-drag-carry. One thing that was abundantly clear by the end of the AFT was the overall fitness it takes to complete the test to standard.

"The standard is the standard, and that sounds simpler than it actually is," Melendez said, after finishing his AFT. "This test can humble you in one event, then embolden you in the next. It should leave you completely drained and remembering that while PT might not be the most important thing you do today, it is the most important thing you do every day."

Heat visibly rose from their bodies as the sun was coming up, Sanford and Melendez stood next to the garrison parade field and high-fived their fellow testers as they crossed the finish line of the two-mile run. All four of the Soldiers signed their scorecards, smiling and still breathing hard. Then, having already done their jobs for a couple of hours, they went to work.