Page 14 - RAPTC Number 102 2018/19

12
www.raptcassociation.org.uk
ARMY HEADQUARTERS – PERSONNEL POLICY (ARMY) – PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
Back in the day, as a PTI Class 2 serving at 4 ADTR in BAOR, I used to flick though SSgt (SSI) Paul Holden’s coveted copy of MBS. The articles within it in, describing the exploits of
all those Corps men and women, helped me to make up my mind about attempting my transfer to the Corps. At the time I never thought I would ever be writing an article for the MBS yet here I am writing my final submission, sitting at my desk in the Army HQ, after 29 years in the Corps. Throughout my time working in this high-octane and sometimes challenging environment, two things have remained constant.
The first is the need for the Army to continually adapt the way it achieves its strategic objectives by operating differently; this in turn has a significant impact on the way we work and increasingly we find ourselves managing major change programmes and projects in addition to routine Physical Development policy business. The affect across multiple elements of the organisation is significant and in order for them to keep pace we must engender trust, actively engage stakeholders, appoint the right people to run with the tasks and inevitably live with a measure of uncertainty.
The second constant is the tremendous opportunity such change presents, something we have seized upon, recently crossing the finish line for the first phase of the Physical Employment Standards policy and implementation project work. Not only have we changed Army physical entry tests and standards we have also moved physical output standards testing to the end of Initial Trade Training thus creating a more progressive glide path for physical training. The new Ground Close Combat in-Service fitness test has been very well received by the soldiers and their Chain of Command, its representative military task and realistic narrative based focus has really helped to achieve ‘buy in’. Our replacement for the PFA signals a real shift in the way individuals and unit commanders must think intelligently about their physical training plans and the importance of covering all components of fitness through the application of the APTS. Despite some tricky issues to overcome, I firmly believe we have now delivered a product to the Army that will endure for the next two decades. In time, we will start to see positive body shapes change, improvements in strength, reduced injury rates and crucially a more deployable Army.
Army HQ
In parallel to all of this we have also been hard at work to establish a realistic Sport Coaching & Officiating Training Requirement to both improve safety and provide a means for the growth of our talent and delivered a major overhaul of the Army’s Water Safety policy. Our successes detailed below by my Physical Development desk officers, currently Majors Mark Field and Nick O’Shea are only achievable through their unstinting dedication, professionalism and good humour whilst ‘under fire’. They have both had a lot on their respective plates, have delivered in spades and I am very lucky to have had such high-quality people working alongside me – thank you very much indeed. Maj Nick O’Shea has done his shift and moves on to HQ RAPTC TDT, we wish him well in the new job. Likewise by the time you read this I will have logged off MoDNet for the last time (I won’t miss it) but in retirement from the Army, I will look forward flicking through my copy of MBS and I have no doubt whatsoever that the exploits of our Corps men and women will continue to inspire me just as much as they did ‘’back in the day’.
DPers Dine Out
Majors Field & O’Shea
SO1 INDIVIDUAL TRAINING
Lt Col (MAA) M Lewis RAPTC