Episode 66: Stop Settling for Mediocrity in Your Military Service

What separates excellence from mediocrity in military service? It all comes down to your relationship with standards. While the Army establishes baseline requirements for physical fitness, marksmanship, and professional competence, truly exceptional soldiers view these minimums as merely the starting point—not the destination.

In this candid exploration of military standards and expectations, we dissect the Sergeant Major of the Army's powerful statement: "I don't like to start from the minimum standard. That, to me, is not a place you start any conversation, especially as warfighters." Too often, we encounter soldiers approaching their Army Combat Fitness Test with a dangerous mindset: "As long as I do my minimum, I'm good." This checkbox mentality fundamentally misunderstands what military service demands.

The conversation expands beyond physical fitness to examine how competitive spirit shapes military excellence. When you consistently push yourself beyond requirements—whether in PT, weapons qualification, or professional development—you're building the resilience and capability that combat situations demand. As the SMA reminds us, "This is a hard life. This is not easy. You chose the path that needs a machete."

We also explore the journey from basic compliance to genuine commitment that represents the maturation of a soldier. New recruits rarely fully comprehend what they've signed up for, but effective leadership helps them understand the deeper purpose behind standards and expectations. The Army isn't merely a jobs program—it's a profession with real consequences for national security.

Have you fallen into the minimum standard trap? Are soldiers in your unit sandbagging their performance? Share your thoughts in the comments, and don't forget to like and subscribe as we continue exploring what it means to serve with excellence rather than adequacy.

Video is from The Jedburgh Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@jedburghpodcast

Chapters

• 0:00 Hitting 1000 Subscribers Milestone
• 1:15 Settling for Minimum Standards
• 4:35 Standards in the Army Blue Book
• 8:40 Exceeding Fitness Test Standards
• 17:43 Building a Culture of Fitness
• 22:57 Recruiting, Retention and Warrior Ethos
• 27:19 The Competitive Spirit of a Soldier

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Roger, sorry, so we just hit 1000 subscribers. Thank you, guys so much, and in honor of that, today I want to talk about competition, and what I mean by competition is the army has a standard and the competitive portion is us wanting to exceed that standard, and many times I've seen this, day in and day out ACFT after ACFT, weapons, qual after weapons, qual, how, when it comes down to the come down, certain individuals will just say I'm just here to hit my minimum. As long as I do my minimum, I'm good, I'm not trying to compete, I don't need any points, I'm about to retire. Whatever their excuse may be, they come up with it, and I want to do that by reacting to a video that I found on the internet. It's the Jim Burr podcast and it has the Sergeant Major of the Army speaking about it's titled In the Army, you Can't Settle for the Minimum Standard.

Speaker 2: 1:31

Here's why, sergeant Major, thanks for stopping by, branch. Good to be here. It's good to see you again. It's been about a year since we were in here and I'll tell you, you're a YouTube sensation on the Jedberg Podcast YouTube channel. Okay, whatever you say. Whatever you say, there's a whole slew of topics and I actually wrote down some notes because you're I might have said that wrong the Jedburgh Podcast.

Speaker 1: 1:59

Go check it out. It's a good podcast actually. I watched a few of their. Once I found this video, I watched a few of their videos, a few of their. Um, once I found this video, I watched a few of their videos, a few of his videos, and he's everywhere.

Speaker 2: 2:10

He gets a lot of people on there folks here, your, your staff is very good, so they gave me a heads up that you might be stopping by, and so there's a few topics like the blue book standards I've never been to. I've been to combat.

Speaker 1: 2:25

The blue book. So when I was in Alaska we had our version of the blue book. This is a different one. On Fort Hood we have the yellow book and I have it downloaded on my phone. I don't have a hard copy of it, but anytime we have issues or any thoughts, that be like well, what does the yellow book say? It's easy you just reach for the book, check on it and, uh, just like any anything else, there's, there's regulations, there's policies, and then there's the book being my fair share of combat, but I've never been to war was one of the popular quotes.

Speaker 2: 3:10

Since you're talking Blue Book, I was going to ask you do you have it? Of course we do, and how's the rollout?

Speaker 3: 3:16

going. A matter of fact, treydot gave me an update the other day. I don't know if this is good or bad, but it's the truth. I think we're about 373,000 downloads Now. We're close to a million people in the army, so I'm always like the glass is half empty. I'm like why aren't there a million people that have downloaded the blue book? But it's a journey, right, we're not going to get there overnight, so, but it is on a serious uptick. I don't know how many people are actually printing it. I'm still old school. I like to touch it. It's a good reminder, kind of that was how we grew up, but I am excited to see they're downloading it and they're using it as the reference for what Wright looks like.

Speaker 2: 3:56

We're talking about standards and that's something that you've harped on, not only in the conversation we had last year, but even in many of the conversations you've been having over the past couple months, as you've visited the formations and you know I've read some of the transcripts and watched some of it that's been publicized and you've really doubled down on standards. We're about to get into it here when we start talking about the PT test and the Army fitness test. Yeah, talk for a second about the importance of upholding the standards in the redesign of that fitness test.

Speaker 3: 4:23

Yeah, and that's why Chris was the right Sergeant Major to come on here. And Joey, you're seeing Hold on.

Speaker 1: 4:34

Maybe I'm tripping. Maybe I'm tripping, tell me. And hey, man, once you get to a certain level, you get to do what you want. But am I wrong? Let me know in the comments. Am I wrong? Or could Sergeant Major of the Army's hair be considered faddish? You know the little shark thing. Whatever it is he has going on. Am I tripping? I could be tripping, Maybe I'm a little sensitive, whatever, but in my opinion it could be a. There could be some way that someone can. They won't tell him anything, but it could be construed as that. And when we're speaking of of standards, I mean everything that he, he has, he's, he says because I follow him on on Instagram everything he says and does is within the standard and there's always something that someone does. But I don't know. I'm just. I mean just being a little petty wop right here. Could it be considered or not?

Speaker 3: 5:37

let me know and now I'm in, out there, like we. We picked, intentionally picked the right people to talk about fitness, right. Audio. Audio and video have to match right. I don't like to start from the minimum standard. That, to me, is not a place you start any conversation, especially as warfighters. But we do have to have a minimum standard, right. And so that's the journey Chris is going to talk to you about a little bit. It's like, hey, we're raising that minimum standard and he'll go over that in detail.

Speaker 1: 6:08

Okay, it's my first reaction video, so I'm going to stop it a few times. Well, he did say one thing that I do agree with. It's the fact that audio and visual have to match, and what he means by that is you can't preach fitness if you don't look fit. Now, fitness comes in various forms, right, but as humans we are subject to judge the appearance, the appearance. And if I Sarn Cruz, am I teaching MFT or holistic health and fitness, whatever it is, or I'm giving, or I'm out front talking about diet and I am looking like I'm two cheeseburgers away from busing tape, you're probably not going to listen to me, even if even if my runtime is low, I passed my ACFT back when it was 540 exemption because I need that 540 to not have to deal with the tape. He is correct, audio has to match the visual. It is just the way it is. Now, the second thing is it's twice that I heard him say Chris. Is he referring to the other Sergeant Major as Chris? I think so. Now my thing is I've heard that once you go to Sergeant, once you're in the Sergeant Major realm, you guys go to first name basis. And I was talking we've talked about this in ad nauseum at least I have with my peers and I'd be like if, if the O's can call themselves by first names, why don't we just call ourselves by first name? It's just why not? And the consensus is typically well, it just takes away. We're sergeants and we have to be the backbone and we can't do what they do, we can't follow them If they don't want to follow the standard blah, blah, blah. Now here is the pinnacle of the tippet of spear, and they call each other by first names. So why can't? Why? What? What is it At what point? Does that convert? I want to know, and am I opposed to it? No, does that convert, I would? I want to know, and am I opposed to it? No, I, I don't care about calling each other by first names.

Speaker 1: 8:33

If you, when in my first duty station I was with the 554 military police company in stuttgart, germany, they had the first and tenth special forces over there and even their airborne support, the riggers and stuff. All of those guys were on first name basis. It didn't matter, from the lowest private up to the highest NCO that was there, they just talked. Even the officers, they all called each other first names. They just relaxed and that's the environment. But my question is what makes it different for just regular Army NCOs to just say, hey, saeed, what's going on? What makes it different just regular army ncos to just say, hey, saeed, what's going on? What makes it different? I don't know, it's it just. It's just something that comes to my head as he says chris twice, and then I knew he was talking about the other guy, the other sergeant major, because he he did the hand movement right, pointing towards him.

Speaker 3: 9:28

I'm off my soapbox and studying it with the G three five seven team and and Rand and some other folks. So I'll let him dive deep into that. But the but the bottom line is I start the conversation with you should be trying to exceed any standard. When I walked in I heard you talk about the journey that you remember with the three fit three event test and you you know some folks remember we had extended scales. Then we didn't use extended scales. I would argue the reason we had extended scales is because it was a fairly easy test. So we had, you know, score 370 today or 360, you know 350 um, and then it got to the point to where it was. Just you know you put 300 on your ACFT or on your NCOER or you just put pass or fail.

Speaker 3: 10:14

And so the journey is about changing the culture of fitness. What it means to be fit as a warfighter, that's really the macro, you know topic that that we love right now. We got to dial into the army fitness test and the minimum standards for combat arms, et cetera. Uh, so that's important too, but it's bigger than that. It's twice a year. You take this thing twice a year If you're doing everything properly in your fitness regimen. You should be taking that test twice a year and not even thinking about it. Oh, we got the AFTs next week 100%.

Speaker 1: 10:49

I live by that. I don't identify by my age I'm 45 and I make sure that I am ready for the ACFT and the AFT when it rolls out. And that's just me. And I typically say that I expect, like with friendships, for instance, I say that I don't expect my friends to do the things that I do for them. I can't put that expectation on them. I could want them to reciprocate, but I can't put that expectation. But in the military, in the army, yes, I can put that expectation for you to give your 100%, because that's your job.

Speaker 1: 11:30

And too many times do we show up to these ACFTs? We know they're coming. We know February, march or April, august, september, october, you're going to have your test and you're acting. People act as if this is something that comes out of the blue and we just don't know when it's going to come. It's like, oh, we have ACFT, yeah, we do, it's the first one of the year and then we're going to have another one in six months. And, just like he said, if your regimen is keeping up to it, then when it comes around it's not a big deal.

Speaker 1: 12:13

I remember when I first came in the army and this is this is why I give a little leeway to the juniors, because they don't really understand what's going on. Right, you got to really get them into it. But every time I took a APFT I would say next time I'm going to get them, next time I'm going to get them, next time I'm going to get them, because you get motivated. Afterwards it's like dang it, I could have got this 300. I could have got this 70. I could have 270, which is 90 in each event. I could have had it if I would have taken morning PTs more seriously. And that's where it starts that regimen that he's talking about more seriously. And that's where it starts that regimen that he's talking about. It starts every single morning.

Speaker 1: 12:51

You sit and you showing up and making sure that you give your 100%. Now, everyone's 100% is different my 100% for my counterpart, who I run with. She's a dietician. She's also 20 years younger than me and her my 100% is probably like her, 80, 70%, but I'm still giving my 100%. And if she wants to turn it up to 100, then I'm going to be, I'm going to lag back on the runs, because she's just better at running than me. She's just better. That's the bottom line. So yeah, if you stay ready, you don't have to get ready, and I know you guys have heard this.

Speaker 3: 13:37

Oh, okay, monday six o'clock. Roger that All right, that should be your attitude. It can't be a thing or I forgot about it.

Speaker 1: 13:46

No big deal. Yeah, we're going to do it. Oh, we're doing another one, we're doing an extra one.

Speaker 3: 13:50

Or there's people taking the retest, or there's people that missed it because they were on pass or leave. Okay, whatever, I'll take it again with my soldiers.

Speaker 1: 13:59

Yes, you should not be scared to take another ACFT with your soldiers. I don't care If you soldiers, I don't care if you took an acft last week and two of your soldiers come off, leave and why not take it with them, who cares? At least run with them, do something with them, don't I like? I like what he just said there.

Speaker 2: 14:18

I'm 100 in agreeance with it if you think about elite organizations, you know a dynasties in athletic programs, college programs, programs where they dominate. Every year, year in, year out. There's this concept that gets talked about. You can't put it on a pedestal. You can't put competition on a pedestal. So you can't look to the end of the week If you're a football player. You can't say, hey, my hardest day is game day, your hardest day has to be the practice. So when you get to game day's like, oh, I only got to do this once when I work with rowing teams and from my days as a collegiate rower, we continuously needed you got to do like four races in it in a practice. So when you get to saturday, it's like, oh, you can do this thing once, once. Yeah, it's not a thing, yeah yeah, the the vice.

Speaker 3: 15:02

The vice talks about this really well, uh. Vice chief of staff, uh, general mingus, uh oneus, one of our phenomenal teammates we're fortunate to work with here in the Pentagon. If you think about our mission, you've got to infill, you have to do something on the objective, potentially hold the terrain after you're successful or exfil. It's not about one step and only one step, right, and so when you think about fitness, it's like if I take an AFT this morning at six o'clock, I have a full day of hard problems to get after. It's not you take an AFT and you're done for the week, right, and so that's why the culture of fitness, uh is our main priority, uh, and we're hoping that this next phase in the evolution of a fitness test, uh, will help everybody understand. To Chris's points before I came on here hey, this is a journey. This will continue to evolve, also a year from now.

Speaker 1: 16:03

Ooh he said something that I think is let me see if I can spin off of that. He says it's the fitness culture, is not? It doesn't stop at PT, right, because you got your ACFT and then you have to go into work, and then he didn't say anything about this. Or, if he did, I missed it. After you get out of work, you have to go into work, and then he didn't say anything about this. Or, if he did, I missed it. Uh, after you get out of work, you have to go home.

Speaker 1: 16:34

So I hear a lot of troops say well, I'd rather be better at my job than worry about, uh, acft or shooting, whatever. It is kind of like the, the combat soldier, for instance, let's say low density I'm specifically because he is combat arms, so he worries about more, about the warfighting soldier. But I am a medic and I hear, with the low density, mos is a lot the legals, the 42 alphas, the finances, the medics, all the support MOSs. Well, I'd rather be better at my job than shooting, whatever it is. But as a soldier, you're doing all three. You're allotted an hour to do PT. In the morning, however, you do have more time if you want to, because you don't have to be the work until nine, some places 9, 30. To be honest with you, as the army has evolved, I've been in battalions, I've been in units, brigades that say we're called 0930. So you have a ample amount of time, but people want to drive home, sit down, play with their dogs and let me get off my soapbox.

Speaker 1: 17:58

So my point is you have more than an hour available for PT. Then comes your job. You have eight hours throughout the day to get better at your job. Every Thursday you have a chance to get better at the warfighting function or at the skills levels 10s to 40s, and then you go home and you deal with your family. Okay, so you can be more things. So you can be more things. Two things can be true at once, but you can be more than just one or the other. You do? You understand what I mean? Just because you're good at fitness does not mean that you're not good at your job, and just because you're good at your job does not mean that you more data and then we'll reevaluate the process again.

Speaker 2: 18:54

Well, I had a chance, since we last spoke, to sit down with your predecessors former Sergeant Major, the 15th Sergeant Major of the Army, Dan Daly who was my first Sergeant Major. Black socks and tattoos At the battalion level and 4th ID, and we had a really, really great conversation about readiness and what readiness means. And now, as we see what's going on in society right now, we see, over the last six, eight months, you know, a huge increase in recruiting and it's gotten a lot stronger.

Speaker 1: 19:27

I think back to the conversation that we had about A huge increase in recruiting could be a little skewed because, like I do my research and the army did drop from 60,000 to 50,000 or 65,000 to 55,000. One of the two. They dropped 10,000 requirement for recruiting. So we did hit our goal. We did hit it earlier and um, but we also have to take a look at the fact that we did lower the bar again. So two things can be true again, we did hit it, but at the same time we have to understand that it was a lower mark.

Speaker 2: 20:09

Challenges. So can you talk for a second from your perspective about how's that changed over the last year or so? And how are things like a revamped army fitness test Reinstilling into the force this war fighting first culture, which then is gonna drive?

Speaker 3: 20:24

recruiting numbers. Yeah, so again, you know, you know this is a. This is a journey with multiple, multiple chapters in it, Right? So we're two years into getting after um warfighting ethos, if you will. Right, and part of that is has been part of our recruiting journey. Um retention stayed steady, uh, continues to stay steady. As a matter of fact, right now, today, we're crushing retention.

Speaker 3: 20:50

Um and I don't have any wood close by, but soldiers want to continue to serve right Yep, and we're not taking that for granted either, and so we're really taking a look at how we retain soldiers and how we use our bonus money, how we use choice of duty stations for second and third term Bonus money.

Speaker 1: 21:12

I want you guys to understand I did a video on this as well when it comes to the continuation pay, if troop, if you're in the brs, I'll post a video somewhere up here about continuation pay. I probably did it on my tiktok, I can't remember. However, you two, you midterm soldiers year eight through 12, you guys are also can get paid, so you're not left out there. Okay, don't think about that. Don't think that you're left out there just to well, oh my God. Well, I've been serving so long and they don't show no appreciation. They do is just a process on how to do it and there's paperwork and you get your pay.

Speaker 3: 21:59

You get your pay Soldiers who are really diving into that. But the warrior ethos for two years now kind of goes back to the blue book, kind of goes back to the standards, kind of goes back to the oath. What does that oath mean? You know, like private Weimer took an oath, did I really know what the oath was? Kind of you've heard me talk about that journey from compliance to commitment. Right, it really starts the day you ship from MEPS. What did I really sign up for? By the time you're done with basic AIT, you get to your first duty station. Do I fully understand and am I committed? Right, that's that journey.

Speaker 3: 22:29

This is a hard life. This is not easy. You chose the path that needs a machete. There's brush that needs cleared. It's a righteous path. It's hard. Like we need to embrace that this is harder than the average path and be proud of it. That's what being part of this profession really means. And so I think when you reset that and people kind of you know, sit back and they're like, well, yeah, of course that makes complete sense. That's been the last two years, I think you, you reset that and people kind of you know, sit back and they're like, well, yeah, of course that makes complete sense. That's been the last two years. I think you're starting to see that in recruiting stations they know what they're signing up for. This is going to be hard you bet it is, but we're going to teach you, we're going to coach you, we're going to bring you along the journey. We're not going to help you meet the standard in the right way.

Speaker 1: 23:13

And then what Chris is talking about he's right 100% Troops need to understand. I don't think. Well, he's about 90%. I don't think troops fully understand what they sign up for. I think from my experience talking to troops, watching them, listening to them, listening to when they come out of, like meetings and when I talk about meetings I mean these sensing sessions Not all of them are under the impression that the Army is the way it is.

Speaker 1: 23:55

A lot of them are coming in, think that they're going to shoot them up, bang, bang and all that stuff. And we're way past that era. That was 9-11 timeframe. Now we are at a peacekeeping type deal and they don't understand it and they get bored out of their mind. And then, on top of that, they have to do PT every. They have to wake up every morning and most of the troops that come in they're used to breaking night, playing video games all night and then waking up whenever they want to. So they have to wake up in the morning. Not only do they have to wake up in the morning, the first thing that they have to do is have a good attitude and come to PT. Then after that, they got to deal with individuals who who yell at them. Probably they have to deal with a standard. That we're talking about, the standard and all of this is is in their first two years in the army. So I don't think they fully understand army. So I don't think they fully understand. But I am with them a hundred percent. That is our job as leaders to bring them along and help them out, because this is a job that it requires more times than that.

Speaker 1: 25:05

There used to be a commercial about the army. It was we've done more before nine o'clock than half half of the world, or something like that, something along those lines. If you remember what it is, put it in the comments I can't remember, I'll Google it afterwards, but still. So you have to understand that the army is a it's it's, it's a, it's a machine, it's a wheel and it just keeps going Right. It's a machine, it's a wheel and it just keeps going right. The army goes rolling along and you either get with it or you, or you can't make it, because that's what we do. We do what others don't want to do. Not everyone wants to wake up and be in shape and be an infantryman. Not everyone wants to be a tanker. Not everyone wants to be a medic. Not everyone wants to be a human resource in the military.

Speaker 1: 25:55

So this is something that I don't think he fully said. That I mean maybe at his level. He's thinking that because he's at a strategic level, but down here in the nitty gritty, troops don't understand it. They don't understand that. He's 100% right. That is our job as leaders that we're going to get them to where they need to be, without bending the standard or breaking the standard. But troop doesn't really understand 100% what they're signing up for. But he was right about that part. That's what it was when he said private Weimer, when he came in he didn't know what he was signing up for. So that part is is that's where I got the a hundred percent. They don't. I didn't.

Speaker 1: 26:40

And now that I know took me. I'm going on 18 years in the army and it took me about 14. Uh, I would say, cause I'm kind of slow. So maybe 13, 14 to fully be like yeah, I, I get the other side and that was because I got put on a staff level. So I start seeing things different. I'm no longer, it's no longer just about me, it's about the whole battalion, it's about the whole brigade.

Speaker 3: 27:06

All right, you got to continue to be able to meet the standard over time Because, like we exist to fight and win, like we're not a jobs program, we have a real mission, uh, with real consequences for the nation. If, um, if we don't take the profession seriously which is why I you know I'm not hanging out very long you're going to get to talk to chris, uh, because, you know, I don't know if he mentioned it, but he's the next, next USARAF sergeant major. He's going to go work for General Donahue in Europe this summer and you know it's sergeant majors like him that remembered where he started out as a private and how he got to where he is now, and he's passionate about giving it all back.

Speaker 2: 27:48

Yeah, he's going to be great in that role and we're going to dig into the details.

Speaker 1: 27:54

Did you guys notice, have you guys noticed that cyber mage of the army other than his, his, uh, special force or whatever I think it is special forces or whatever it is his tab and his combat patch? He has no badges on, no badges and he's he's he's airborne air assault. I think it's aerosol airborne and he's airborne aerosol. I think it's aerosol airborne. Yeah, he's airborne, and I'm pretty sure he has other things he has nothing on. He is super sleek.

Speaker 1: 28:25

So I say that, to say this, even if you think that because you have all of that stuff on it makes you look better, it does. But you also have to remember that you have to look the part right. Video has to match audio and I don't know if it's a tactic of his like. If he misspeaks or something they'll be like. Oh well, you know he's not all that, but which I doubt. But just take a look at how sleek his, his uniform is. He has nothing on and it blows my mind because he could just be stacked. I'm pretty sure when he puts his, his pinks on that it's all stacked, but it just. I just noticed that. You know, attention to detail. It took me 10 15 minutes to notice this, but yeah, that's interesting to me.

Speaker 2: 29:17

We had a fitness test and we were having a good laugh before this about he's going to go there and take the job from Sergeant Major Jeremiah oh yeah, also a friend of the podcast, another warfighter. I was telling him how we dragged him out there into the bunkers of Pointe du Hoc last June and we did that interview with him there and they have. You talked about a real mission, but you want to talk about an organization that's front and center and really the strategic impact of our forward deployed forces. I mean, it comes back to everything you're saying that this is a no-fail mission that the Army has and we need the right people to do it.

Speaker 3: 29:52

Yeah, that's without, without exactly what you just said. Is there deterrence? Absolutely not, I would argue there isn't deterrence. Why are we sitting there for 80 years? We got to be serious. We got to be serious about our profession. Um, yeah, we can't compromise on that. Yeah, so, all right, I'm gonna get out of here. All right, chris has got this, you're in hands. It's good to see you, friend, you too.

Speaker 1: 30:15

He keeps up with this Chris thing, man, but yeah, at the end of the day, you have to have some type of competitive spirit. If you're not good at something, then that's fine, but don't blame it or don't use the escape route of well, I'm only doing this because I'm not, really I don't care, or it's not my job, or whatever. It is right. If you suck, you suck, but don't make an excuse because you suck and as a military, as an army troop, you have to have some type of competitive spirit. You have to have some type of competitive spirit. You have to. If it's 300, the bare minimum, you wanna do at least 350, 400, whatever it is.

Speaker 1: 31:02

Do your best is my point at the end of the day. But what about you? Do you do your best? Are people at your unit sandbagging also? I'd like to hear you in the comments. As you guys already know, it may take me a day or two, but I will still make sure that I answer any and all comments in the comment section. Do me a favor like comment, subscribe all that cool stuff and remember you don't have to embrace the suck if you got the right tools in your ruck. I'm Sarn Cruz and I'll see you in the next one. Peace, Roger Sarn.