A paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division’s 1st

A paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team uses a pump handle on an M777 howitzer, June 19, at Fort Bragg, N.C., while participating in the Soldier 2020 Gender-Neutral Physical Standards Study being conducted across Forces Command. The aim of the study is to determine the specific levels of strength and stamina required to perform duties in combat arms military occupational specialties; once those physical standards have been studied and compiled the Army is slated to use the results to create entry tests for new recruits who wish to enlist into combat arms fields and for female soldiers who wish to transition into fields previously closed to them. Devil brigade paratroopers participating in the study completed tasks common to all combat arms soldiers, including a 15-mile road march carrying approximately 130 pounds of gear, casualty evacuation, employing hand grenades and carrying and emplacing machine guns, as well as tasks specific to their individual military occupational specialties. Army and civilian scientists from the Research Institute of Environmental Medicine conducted the study under the supervision of leaders from Training and Doctrine Command. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Mary S. Katzenberger)