Joining the Navy is a dream come true for those who want to serve their nation with pride and dignity. Navy’s high institutional standards ensure the entry of only the fittest in body and mind and setting those personal benchmarks are the toughest part. There are several preliminary parameters that have to be met in terms of educational and personal qualifications before joining the navy. Once inside and behind the naval walls much depends on things such as physical standards, medical background, height/weight considerations, and fitness tests to determine what you actually end up doing.
Navy has set physical standards that have to be met to ensure that physically healthy recruits are taken into service. The physical tests make sure that you are facing any serious medical issues and you have the ability to perform under extremely strenuous conditions whether onboard or otherwise. Apart from physical fitness and medical issues, a recruit also has to meet certain height and weight standards. Navy has its own height and weight requirement table that sets guidelines for both male and female recruits. Take for example a man weighing 201 pounds has to be 72 inches tall or a woman of the same height has to be no less than 185 pounds.
The next is the Boot Camp. For any recruit boot camp undoubtedly is the most abominable place to be in because it is here that you have to give up your lazy going civilian lifestyle to adopt a dedicated strict regimen thoroughly based on discipline, meticulous procedures, skills and physical fitness. To make the matters even harder, in order to move ahead from the Boot Camp stage one has to pass the Navy’s physical readiness test.
The Physical Readiness Test comprises a series of exercises that have to be completed in a certain amount of time. The exercises would largely comprise warming up, a sit-and-reach, curls-up and sit-ups. The entire routine has to be completed in a given amount of time and all of it ends with a 1.5 mile run, which again has to be finished in record time. The scores in physical fitness test are evaluated on a scale of outstanding, excellent, good, average or in case a recruit has not been able to perform well then he/she is considered to have either failed or is put on probation. On the basis of the performance in physical fitness test, taken by naval candidates, certain averages have been worked out. For example, in order to clinch a passing average score of 68 for the PRT, an 18 year old candidate should ideally perform 70 sit-ups, 65 push-ups and run the 1.5-mile course in 10 minutes. Just by reading that hope you can imagine the levels of physical fitness required to be a part of the navy.
Joining the navy is not an easy task. In order to get through the Boot Camp a candidate has to score an average of 60 points. In case a recruit fails the exam, then he/she can reappear for the physical test after a probationary period. Recruits who successfully clear the boot camp have to clear the PRT every six months while attaining an average of 50!