Trust me the academy is a cakewalk physically compared to BUD/S.
I'll second that.
I've had a handfull of division officers from the academy and I wasn't very impressed watching them PT (if they ever did).
The naval academy is just a very selective college with a physical requirement for entrance.
In the end, during their naval careers you can't tell the difference between an annapolis grad and someone that went through ROTC.
Roger that. When I was at the AF academy this summer, I expected to get schooled by all the cadets up there physically. Nope. I was kind of dissapointed. But oh well. I want to go STO anyways.
The academy is unique from any other civilian college. I'm the first to admit that not everyone here is here because they were star athletes. That isn't the majority, though. Those coming out of their freshman year especially tend to look a bit on the skinny side, but, trust me, they can do alot more than what they look. Getting beat by upperclassman for 9 months tends to build alot of endurance, not bulk. Freshman year is also devoted to an amazing amount of stupid jobs and tasks that eat away your time. Those are the guys you just encountered in GE. Take a look at the upperclassman and all of a sudden you see a marked increase in bulk. Trust me I did the ROTC thing for a year. Academy cadets don't have near the time to spend on physical development as do most college students (heck, we don't have much time to do much else besides what they tell us to), but most stay in pretty decent shape. I went on Ops this summer to McGuire AFB and had no trouble beating 99% of the enlisted and officers on a three mile run. Up here at the academy, I tend to come in in the middle of the pack. We actually have a higher scoring system than any of the other services, including active duty. To max the PFT for men:
72 pushups in 2 min.
95 situps ''
21 pullups
9ft. 1 in. jump
1:35min. for a 600 yd run at the end
A seperate 1.5 mile run: 7:35min (at 7200 ft. altitude)
Its certainly not BUDS, but BUDS isn't four years either. That being said, I believe both ROTC programs and the AF academy produce fine officers. I wouldn't being going here if I believed otherwise. And no, I don't want to be a pilot. . .
