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Jon Voight Maxes Out PT Test at Ft. Dix
Falls Church, VA
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
See Full Transcript from Jon Voight at www.vetsvision.org
Falls Church, Virginia ---- Yesterday, Americans learned that federal and state law enforcement and intelligence officials thwarted a suspected terrorist attack on soldiers at the sprawling Army post in Ft. Dix, New Jersey. Last evening, Jon Voight gave a national, television interview on MSNBC's 'Scarbourgh Country' where he spoke about the dangers of terrorist attacks. What many viewers probably did not know is that Voight, himself, served at Ft. Dix.
Voight, who fulfilled his army reserve basic training obligation at Ft. Dix, relayed a fascinating story of his experience to Maj. Brian Hampton, Publisher of the Veterans' Vision and President of the Circle of Friends for American Veterans. During the wide-ranging interview, Voight shared his personal experiences in the military and his concerns regarding the dangers America faces from religious extremism.
Voight is the star of the new movie September Dawn, opening on June 22nd. The film centers on the real-life massacre of 120 men, women and children in Utah on September 11, 1857. The first known act of religious terrorism on U. S. soil was committed by a group of Mormons to a wagon train of settlers who were relocating to California.
During the interview, Voight spoke of his time at Ft. Dix and becoming the first soldier to ever receive a perfect score on a Physical Training (PT) test at Ft. Dix. What follows is from the transcription of the interview where Voight reveals how he received the perfect score and how it got him out of some unpleasant duties:
Jon Voight: "I was at Fort Dix for my basic training. In the Reserves for basic. I was asked to do the physical training at the end of my basic training and I was in the section for clerk typing, or something like that, and almost a week and half later we went into the physical training. I tried to get out of it and told my sergeant I had already done it.
I said, 'Why don't you put some incentive into it (and you can imagine who I was talking to)?' He looked at me with some glazed eyes.
The sergeant said, 'There's no incentive, you just do it and you get your mark and you go on.'
And I said, 'Look, what about if someone gets a perfect score.'
And he said, 'A perfect score? No one gets a perfect score.'
So I said, 'If I get a perfect score, can I get out of detail work?'
And he said, 'if you get a perfect score, you can get out of detail week,' knowing that no one has ever gotten a perfect score. I was skinny and looked like I couldn't do too much.
Anyway, so I said, 'I'll do it!'
For the first part of the test, we had to crawl under barbed wire in the sand and I got a perfect score. Then, I had to do the grenade toss. Throwing a grenade is like putting. You get into the rhythm and you can just do it. I was golfer and just had a touch and I threw the first one and got it into the circle. Threw the next three and got them all in the circle, so that's 100%, right?
Then, I came all the way through and got to the hand-over-hand, horizontal bars. It was like a triathlon, so I go through this, and I was pretty good at it, and the guy said, 'that's it,' so I dropped. Then he said, 'you had one more (bar) to go.' and I said, 'No, that's it! It was up to you, and you said I had done it, so write down 100%.' So he wrote it down.
Now it's the last one, a mile run in boots under five minutes. I had come in at a decent time, maybe 5:20, or something like that, so I knew I had a shot at it. I recognized a guy from basic training who previously had a time under five minutes.
So, I said, 'Pardon me, listen, if I get under five minutes, and I can do it, I'll get a perfect score on my PT Test. Since you can run it in five minutes every time (and he said he could every time), could I run in your heat behind you?'
He said I could run behind him. So I said, 'What do I think about? (I asked because I wasn't really a long distance runner).'
He said, 'Don't think about the race, just look at the back of my neck and never leave it.' So I figured, this guy's a genius and he was positive and he gave me instruction.
So they say 'Go,' so the timer is off, and this guy takes off like it's a sprint and I said, 'Holy Crud!' I would usually start off easy, but he ran it like a miler, not like he was just trying to survive, and I thought, 'Oh My God, Holy Smoke!'
As soon as I thought that, I said to myself, 'Don't think about the race' and I thought about everything else; thinking of anything else. Its was like when you're doing repetitive exercises and your mind wakes up and you're further along than you thought, and if you can do that you can keep yourself going.
I ended up making the time, just on it, five minutes on the dot. So what happens is, I am the first person to ever get a perfect score on the PT test at Ft. Dix. Since then, there's been a few more, but it was the first one at that time. Then they announce that someone had a perfect score to all of these great athletes in the room. And they said, grumbling, 'Who did it?'
'Pfc. Jon Voight.' And I stand up, and I had no hair, those big glasses on and I was skinny, and the guys said, 'Oh, man!'
So it was funny. I went back to my sergeant and he explained that, well, he didn't really have the ability to get me out of detail week. I finally went all the way up the chain and someone at the top said, 'if they said it, then you're off detail week.'"
The Circle of Friends for American Veterans has a special bond and affinity with Jon Voight, because he has been a financial supporter of the organizations' programs in support of homeless veterans. Mr. Voight has supported the Circle of Friends through the Noel Foundation of Los Angeles, which was founded in 1989 by businesswoman Noel Irwin Hentschel, with the purpose of funding projects that, "help those most in need to help themselves"
The Circle of Friends for American Veterans is a non-profit organization dedicated to advocacy on behalf of American Veterans; especially homeless veterans. Since 1993, the Circle of Friends has sponsored dozens of rallies throughout the country in support of U.S. Veterans, working to highlight the important role performed by the over 250 non-profit transitional facilities to get over 300,000 homeless veterans off the street. The Circle of Friends has also conducted 150 forum/receptions with some of the nation's leading decision-makers in Congress and the Department of Defense.
Falls Church, Virginia ---- Yesterday, Americans learned that federal and state law enforcement and intelligence officials thwarted a suspected terrorist attack on soldiers at the sprawling Army post in Ft. Dix, New Jersey. Last evening, Jon Voight gave a national, television interview on MSNBC's 'Scarbourgh Country' where he spoke about the dangers of terrorist attacks. What many viewers probably did not know is that Voight, himself, served at Ft. Dix.
Voight, who fulfilled his army reserve basic training obligation at Ft. Dix, relayed a fascinating story of his experience to Maj. Brian Hampton, Publisher of the Veterans' Vision and President of the Circle of Friends for American Veterans. During the wide-ranging interview, Voight shared his personal experiences in the military and his concerns regarding the dangers America faces from religious extremism.
Voight is the star of the new movie September Dawn, opening on June 22nd. The film centers on the real-life massacre of 120 men, women and children in Utah on September 11, 1857. The first known act of religious terrorism on U. S. soil was committed by a group of Mormons to a wagon train of settlers who were relocating to California.
During the interview, Voight spoke of his time at Ft. Dix and becoming the first soldier to ever receive a perfect score on a Physical Training (PT) test at Ft. Dix. What follows is from the transcription of the interview where Voight reveals how he received the perfect score and how it got him out of some unpleasant duties:
Jon Voight: "I was at Fort Dix for my basic training. In the Reserves for basic. I was asked to do the physical training at the end of my basic training and I was in the section for clerk typing, or something like that, and almost a week and half later we went into the physical training. I tried to get out of it and told my sergeant I had already done it.
I said, 'Why don't you put some incentive into it (and you can imagine who I was talking to)?' He looked at me with some glazed eyes.
The sergeant said, 'There's no incentive, you just do it and you get your mark and you go on.'
And I said, 'Look, what about if someone gets a perfect score.'
And he said, 'A perfect score? No one gets a perfect score.'
So I said, 'If I get a perfect score, can I get out of detail work?'
And he said, 'if you get a perfect score, you can get out of detail week,' knowing that no one has ever gotten a perfect score. I was skinny and looked like I couldn't do too much.
Anyway, so I said, 'I'll do it!'
For the first part of the test, we had to crawl under barbed wire in the sand and I got a perfect score. Then, I had to do the grenade toss. Throwing a grenade is like putting. You get into the rhythm and you can just do it. I was golfer and just had a touch and I threw the first one and got it into the circle. Threw the next three and got them all in the circle, so that's 100%, right?
Then, I came all the way through and got to the hand-over-hand, horizontal bars. It was like a triathlon, so I go through this, and I was pretty good at it, and the guy said, 'that's it,' so I dropped. Then he said, 'you had one more (bar) to go.' and I said, 'No, that's it! It was up to you, and you said I had done it, so write down 100%.' So he wrote it down.
Now it's the last one, a mile run in boots under five minutes. I had come in at a decent time, maybe 5:20, or something like that, so I knew I had a shot at it. I recognized a guy from basic training who previously had a time under five minutes.
So, I said, 'Pardon me, listen, if I get under five minutes, and I can do it, I'll get a perfect score on my PT Test. Since you can run it in five minutes every time (and he said he could every time), could I run in your heat behind you?'
He said I could run behind him. So I said, 'What do I think about? (I asked because I wasn't really a long distance runner).'
He said, 'Don't think about the race, just look at the back of my neck and never leave it.' So I figured, this guy's a genius and he was positive and he gave me instruction.
So they say 'Go,' so the timer is off, and this guy takes off like it's a sprint and I said, 'Holy Crud!' I would usually start off easy, but he ran it like a miler, not like he was just trying to survive, and I thought, 'Oh My God, Holy Smoke!'
As soon as I thought that, I said to myself, 'Don't think about the race' and I thought about everything else; thinking of anything else. Its was like when you're doing repetitive exercises and your mind wakes up and you're further along than you thought, and if you can do that you can keep yourself going.
I ended up making the time, just on it, five minutes on the dot. So what happens is, I am the first person to ever get a perfect score on the PT test at Ft. Dix. Since then, there's been a few more, but it was the first one at that time. Then they announce that someone had a perfect score to all of these great athletes in the room. And they said, grumbling, 'Who did it?'
'Pfc. Jon Voight.' And I stand up, and I had no hair, those big glasses on and I was skinny, and the guys said, 'Oh, man!'
So it was funny. I went back to my sergeant and he explained that, well, he didn't really have the ability to get me out of detail week. I finally went all the way up the chain and someone at the top said, 'if they said it, then you're off detail week.'"
The Circle of Friends for American Veterans has a special bond and affinity with Jon Voight, because he has been a financial supporter of the organizations' programs in support of homeless veterans. Mr. Voight has supported the Circle of Friends through the Noel Foundation of Los Angeles, which was founded in 1989 by businesswoman Noel Irwin Hentschel, with the purpose of funding projects that, "help those most in need to help themselves"
The Circle of Friends for American Veterans is a non-profit organization dedicated to advocacy on behalf of American Veterans; especially homeless veterans. Since 1993, the Circle of Friends has sponsored dozens of rallies throughout the country in support of U.S. Veterans, working to highlight the important role performed by the over 250 non-profit transitional facilities to get over 300,000 homeless veterans off the street. The Circle of Friends has also conducted 150 forum/receptions with some of the nation's leading decision-makers in Congress and the Department of Defense.
Brian Hampton
Founder and Publisher
Circle of Friends for American Veterans
Falls Church, VA
703-237-8980
703-237-8976
