Navy men, fully clad and with rifles, swarm down cargo net in drill that prepares for landing operations.

GETTING THEM FIT TO FIGHT

Ti the job of the Physical Fitness Section of the
Training Division, BuPers, with its Specialists (A) and
physical training officers. There is just one objective of all
naval training—to prepare men physically and technically
for service in the fleet. The man who is in top physical
condition fights better—and longer—than the one who isn’t.
“It takes the physically fit to stand the gaff in the Navy,”
said Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, usn, CinCPac, in speaking
to Chief Specialists (A) at Pearl Harbor assigned to the
fleet and the Fourteenth Naval District. The physical
training programs at recruit training stations, service, mid-
shipmen, and officer indoctrination schools, and V-12 Units
ae built around the fact that it takes “iron men for iron
ships.”

The training program, by preparing men physically, de-
velops also a spirit of confidence and a will to fight. For
example, a man who enters the Navy with no experience
iu body contact sports (boxing, wrestling, football, etc.)
may get a completely new mental experience from his first
boxing lesson. After more training in contact sports a man
gets poise, confidence, skill, and the desire for combat—
even though he had never had a grade-school fist fight
before his Navy days.

At each recruit training station a physical training officer
is attached to the staff of the recruit training officer. His
job is to administer the physical training program, both in
recruit and service school training, which now has a mini-
mum time requirement of at least five hours per week. On
the staff of the Director of Training in each of the Naval

Districts a physical training officer supervises the program
at activities in the district. Specialists (A), all of whom
have had training at the Physical Instructors’ School, con-
duct the physical training activities.

The physical fitness program is divided into physical
training and physical maintenance. The former aims to de-
velop men to a high state of physical fitness, the latter to
keep them there after that level is attained. Physical train-
ing includes all exercises, games, and sports required during
the training day as a part of the regular program. Those
games, sports, and activities participated in by naval per-
sonnel during their leisure time are considered recreation and
are conducted under that program. Obviously, there is a
close relationship between the two.

On the following page are statements by the Secretary of
the Navy, the Chief of Naval Personnel, and the Director
of Training, concerning physical fitness. A 19-page word-
and-picture story on the physical fitness program follows
to show in complete detail how this important job is being
done.

The plans and purposes of the Navy’s famous obstacle
courses are described, pages 3-5; the advantages of calis-
thenics, pages 6-7; the lessons taught by boxing, page 8;
the methods of teaching hand-to-hand fighting, pages 9-11;
the swimming program, pages 12-15, with the strokes fa-
vored by the Navy pictured on page 13; the place of football
in the Navy, page 16; the standard tests the Navy has for
a man’s physical fitness, page 18; and the place of gym-
nastics, page 19.