In fiscal year 1980, of the more than 2 million servicemembers on active duty, over 170,000 (8.4 percent) were women. Congressional action and DOD policymaking lifted the prohibition on women serving in positions in combat aviation, aboard combatant vessels, and in ground units (brigade level and above) and DOD’s new definition of combat jobs opened over 259,000 additional military positions to women servicemembers since April 1993. By December 1995, the number of women serving on active duty had risen to over 191,000 (about 12.8 percent of the approximately 1.5 million servicemembers). At the time of our report, DOD had opened over 80 percent of all positions to all servicemembers, ranging from a low of 62 percent of positions open to women in the Marine Corps to a high of over 99 percent of positions open to women in the Air Force. Section 543 of the Fiscal Year 1994 National Defense Authorization Act required the services to adopt gender-neutral occupational performance standards and defined those as being work standards that are common, relevant, and not based on gender. The act also required the services to adopt physical performance standards for any occupation in which DOD determined that strength, endurance, or stamina was essential to the performance of duties. The DOD General Counsel later determined that the services were not required to have physical standards for any occupation but that if such standards did exist they would have to be applied on a gender-neutral basis for any occupation open to both men and women. The services use a variety of pre-enlistment, job classification, and retention screening devices to select qualified candidates for military service. For example, pre-enlistment screens include requirements that recruits score at or above a specified minimum on a cognitive test and be within a certain height or weight range. Other standards may be occupation-specific, such as requiring recruits entering electronics occupations to demonstrate aptitude in the field of electronics. DOD has left it to the services to determine how to classify servicemembers into physically demanding occupations. The Air Force is the only service that requires recruits to take a strength aptitude test. Each Air Force enlisted occupation is categorized into one of eight strength categories, and recruits’ test scores are used to screen them for their military occupations. The other services permit virtually any recruit to fill nearly all physically demanding occupations provided they meet cognitive, height/weight, and other standards unrelated to strength capacity and restrict women only from occupations closed by combat exclusion policies. In 1976, we recommended that DOD develop standards for measuring recruits’ ability to meet strength, stamina, and operational requirements because we found that some servicemembers were unable to do physically demanding tasks. In response, the Army categorized each enlisted occupational specialty into one of five categories based on physical demand. It required new recruits to take a strength test using the “incremental lifting machine,” a weight-lifting machine developed and used by the Air Force. The Army concluded that although the test helped to better match recruits’ physical capabilities to requirements of physically demanding occupations, it also prevented more women than men from serving in certain occupations. Consequently, test results were used only to counsel applicants about job assignments. The Army discontinued the test in 1990. In the 1970s, the Air Force adopted an earlier version of the test and by 1987 categorized each of its enlisted occupations into one of eight physical demand categories. The Air Force currently requires all recruits to take the strength aptitude test at a military entrance processing station. The test requires recruits to lift weights on the incremental lifting machine starting at 40 pounds; the weight is then increased in 10-pound increments until the recruit (1) cannot complete a lift, (2) asks to stop, or (3) lifts 110 pounds (the maximum for any occupation in the Air Force). An Air Force counselor uses the results to match recruits to occupations based on the eight physical demand categories and screens out applicants who the test results indicate would have difficulty performing physically demanding jobs. The Navy considered using a strength test to screen applicants for entry into physically demanding military occupations and concluded that more women than men would have been excluded from such jobs. The Navy concluded, however, that women were already meeting the physical demands of their occupations and, for that reason, did not implement its test or categorize its occupations by physical demand. Similarly, the Marine Corps has not adopted an occupationally based strength test or categorized its occupations by physical demand. Except for the Army, the services have not collected data on servicemembers’ ability to do physically demanding jobs and have little basis on which to conclude that servicemembers are not having problems. We are concerned that some servicemembers may have difficulty doing some physically demanding tasks based on the results of a limited survey conducted by the Army Research Institute (ARI) and anecdotal information we obtained in interviews with servicemembers. However, given limitations on the ARI survey and our interviews, we were not able to assess the significance of the problem. In 1989, 1994, and 1995, ARI surveyed servicemembers in selected Army occupations. In 1989, ARI surveyed 21 combat and noncombat occupations and found that 59 to 84 percent of male and female servicemembers in 7 selected noncombat occupations reported no difficulty in lifting objects. In the 1994-95 follow-on survey of 10 of 267 occupations, ARI found that 51 to 79 percent of servicemembers reported no difficulty in lifting objects in some of the same occupations as those looked at in the 1989 survey. Because the surveys did not address the significance of the problem and rely on self-reported data, the results must be used with caution. On the other hand, the results also suggest that the Army may have servicemembers who have had difficulty doing physical tasks. The other services have not done any systematic assessment of the capability of their personnel to perform the physically demanding aspects of their jobs. According to DOD and Army officials, the services rely upon the absence of complaints filtering up from operational units as an indicator that widespread performance problems do not exist. Supervisory personnel we spoke with, however, indicated that they would work around individual performance capability problems or redistribute tasks and that it was unlikely such information would be channeled to higher levels unless widespread problems were encountered. Our discussions with about 100 Army personnel in 5 occupational specialties (2 of which were used in ARI’s survey) anecdotally supported ARI’s finding that some soldiers were having difficulty completing some physically demanding tasks. In addition, in discussions with over 300 military personnel in the Air Force, the Navy, and the Marine Corps, some individuals stated that at one time or another, they had difficulty with some aspect of their job. Given the limited number of personnel we interviewed and the limited number of military specialties we reviewed, we were unable to determine whether such problems were widespread. All four services told us that they have the capability and infrastructure already in place to collect data on physical demands of occupations at little or no additional cost. Each of the services has ongoing processes through which they can identify occupational tasks in each specialty in order to revise training curriculums and which they use for other reasons. However, the services do not collect data on the physical demands of jobs with these processes. Surveys, identification of physically demanding tasks, or other data collection efforts, could be used as a first step in identifying occupations in which servicemembers have difficulty and can identify occupations that are candidates for reengineering to reduce the physical demands placed on servicemembers. For example, the Army Research Laboratory has a pilot reengineering project underway that attempts to identify opportunities to reengineer selected occupations to reduce the physical demands and enhance job sustainment, safety, and personnel utilization. In addition, the Air Force has a number of reengineering studies underway. Systematic data collection on physically demanding tasks could be used to develop occupation-specific physical strength training. For example, the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) has commissioned the Army’s Research Institute of Environmental Medicine to develop a database of physically demanding tasks in Army occupations. TRADOC is considering using the database to establish specific physical strength training to help servicemembers meet the physical demands of their jobs. According to DOD, current training consists of classroom training that tends to be less physically oriented than on-the-job training. Once in their duty assignments, servicemembers continue their on-the-job training. According to DOD, training standards are based on tasks, duties, and knowledge required to perform in an occupation and men and women are held to the same standards. The Air Force is the only service that uses strength aptitude testing as a prerequisite for entry into specific military occupations. Air Force recruits take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) and must pass a physical given at a military entrance processing station. If they pass the physical, recruits then take the strength aptitude test, and their scores are recorded in their medical records. Finally, recruits meet with an Air Force counselor who matches them to a military occupation based on the ASVAB and strength aptitude test scores, their interests, and the needs of the Air Force. However, Army, Navy, and independent research raises questions about the predictive validity of the test currently used by the Air Force, and we found several problems with implementation of the Air Force testing program. Since 1982, at least nine studies have been published or presented that raise questions about the validity of the incremental lifting machine test as a predictor of performance in military occupations, particularly if the test is relied upon as the sole measure of predicted performance. A 1982 study sponsored by the Air Force reported that the incremental lifting machine was the best single predictor of task performance. The result was based upon transformation of the combined male and female scores that minimized the differences in those scores but resulted in giving the appearance of improving the predictive power of the incremental lifting machine beyond the experimental results.