Report: Army Discharging Overweight Soldiers

Newsmax ^ | Monday, 10 Dec 2012 03:03 PM | Todd Beamon

[Olog-hai]

The Army’s looking for thinner men and women. The leading cause of civilians not making the cut is obesity, the Washington Post reports, and budgetary concerns are leading the Army to drop those who cannot meet its fitness standards. …

The Army kicked out 1,625 active-duty personnel for being out of shape during the first 10 months of the year—nearly 16 times more than in 2007, the peak of wartime deployment cycles, the Post reports. …

[cunning_fish]

>>>>I never had a problem with physical fitness tests and worked out regularly. I thought strength was more important for our mission than looking pretty.<<<<

It was in your old decadent, pre-GAY military....

[R. Scott]

Yea, “pretty” was the important thing when I retired in 1986.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

I know in the Marine Corps you could get a weight lifters waiver from the corpsman. It had to be documented though that you were over your weight limit because you were a muscle bound gym rat.

[Jack Hammer]

It is perfectly all right, however, to f*ck your buddy up the arse in the shower, as long as you look svelte while doing it.

All hail the New Age.

[xrmusn]

I know in the Marine Corps you could get a weight lifters waiver from the corpsman. It had to be documented though that you were over your weight limit because you were a muscle bound gym rat
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“MY” Navy didn’t have us playing such games...especially on smaller ships BUT I kind of dismissed all this foolishness back when ‘the experts’ said Michael Jordan was overweight etc when he was in his prime.

Of course my military and playing days were way behind me by then and the permanent flotation device attached to my waist was taking on a life of its own, so ‘dissing’ a ‘super star’ such as Jordan justified my opinion that the tests were faulty.

[ThunderSleeps]

Yep, shape up or you’re out. They give them a chance. A few years back I used to work out and train with an ex Marine at my local gym. His job, when he’s was in, was to run what he called the fat farm. A program they sent overweight Marines through to shape up. So it want like they were not given a chance and expert help. Wonder if they still run that program...

[Delta Dawn]

This is the way that the military has always been. Every service has fitness requirements, and yes, they do enforce them.

This is a case of someone writing an article so that they could be published. Tomorrow’s article; Rain is wet.

[Doogle]

"...I'll confess, I paid someone $5.00 to do three laps of my qualifying "run" while in Thailand. Some guy who obviously was part deer (and needed the money)gladly participated. The course was laid out around the gym and a group of barracks (4 laps). I started and the first half lap, pinned the three digit number on my deer, he ran the next 3 laps, stopped by my observation and refreshment station (grins),I got pinned (the number)and finished the last half lap. He got paid and went off happy with two beers, I went to sleep. Running wasn't high on my objectives that day after doing a 14 hour night shift and 95 degree morning....well, it showed initiative and thinking outside the box, and I slept well

[MasterGunner01]

This always happens when there is a RIF (reduction in force) planned. The first to go are the white guys because the females and the blacks and Latinos and gays are protected species in the PC military.

It doesn't matter if you are all muscle and sinew and not an ounce of fat, because the medical department has this height, weight, body mass index chart and if you run afoul of it because of your body type, you are screwed. You will be thrown out and your career will be over. If you haven't reached the magic years of service to qualify for retirement age, you lose everything. You don't get a dime and it applies to active duty, national guard, or reservists. You will get no thank you from a grateful nation — instead you'll get a ?get lost and don't bother us again”.

[DUMBGRUNT]

Make them charge up a hill all day and night till they get it right.

That may get you in some hot water.

Now if you make them a 'permanent' road guard that would be a bit more acceptable . The road guard must double time ahead to block any cross traffic, after the unit has safely passed return to position.

They get a nice workout and a bit of rest at every intersection. If they survive.

[AppyPappy]

Sgt: You are 20 lbs overweight. You are out!
Pvt: I’m gay.
Sgt: Welcome back.

[My hearts in London - Everett]

I don’t know about the Army, but the Navy separates members for not meeting their standards. Those physical standards quite often have nothing to do with being “fit”.

[blueunicorn6]

The Army sent out a survey to all Commanders asking for their input on fitness standards. This was back in the days of the old five event PT test. I wrote back and told them to go around the world and talk to combat veterans and ask them what level of fitness was required for combat. They didn’t do that. They were expanding the Army and wanted something cheap, so we ended up with the three event test. It had nothing to do with combat fitness. It had to do with being cheap. There is no equipment required for the three event test of pushups, situps and a two mile run. So, Soldiers, your senior leaders could care less about preparing you for combat. What they cared about was cost. We’ve been fighting for eleven years in Afghanistan with skinny, fit Soldiers and we can’t win. Maybe we need smart leaders instead.

[My hearts in London - Everett]

Same reason one of my daughters is getting out of the Navy ~ this stupid taping idea. She’s been under constant stress about it for the past 3 or 4 years. She’s damn good at her job. I told to work hard to comply and let the chips fall where they may. Her skills pay well outside the military.

[Arrowhead1952]

1. I would like to see a demographic breakdown of those who were discharged for this.
M/F, race/age, MOS, etc. I think that info might be ...'enlightening.'

2. What were their PT Test scores. Personally, I think anyone who passes their PT Test - legitimately passes - should be given the GO on this.

Several years ago, there was a Puerto Rican in our unit. He scored the max on the APFT every year, but could not put a sentence together that made a lick of sense. He went from E4 - E7 in about six years. He could not put anything in writing that made sense either, and we learned that someone had been doing all his online courses for him. He was allowed to resign instead of getting the boot.

[razorback-bert]

If they do this how are you going to tell who the quartermasters and cooks are?

Running for the bunker.

[Tainan]

Good point. What I see in that tale, and I believe you, is a typical case of "Up & Out" being in action.

I probably should have been a bit more specific in saying that I was directly addressing the situation of healthy individuals who do not fit into the specified Height/weight BFI Indexes used in determination of acceptable standards for the U.S. Army.

I ran into more than my share, at least I thought so, of mental midgets who couldn't pour piss out of a boot with the instructions written on the bottom of the boot. If included in my charge I made sure they did nothing more harmful than paint rocks, sweep and clean the dayroom everyday or hand out towels in the gymnasium. If they out ranked me, I discovered that the easiest way to mitigate their idiots suggestions was to do what they wanted and then make sure the 1stSGT. knew about it.

All too often these incompetents are/were either transferred out and made someone elses problem. It was the rare case where any remedial assistance was mandated to either bring them up to speed or quietly remove them from the Army. Although I did see this occurring, attempts at in service education, more towards the end of my service in 1980. (yeah...that long ago)

[Arrowhead1952]

I was promoted to SGM in 1991 and had to get out the end of 2011, since I was turning 60 the early part of 2012. I got my share of incompetents who were either transferred into the section. I always tried to someone elses problem a positive for our section, but some were beyond help. The hardest part was training the younger officers and warrants to follow the guidelines set by the directors, which were usually COL.

[jwalsh07]

I dunno. Back in the day a lot of Nam vets who got shot up and didn’t want out of the Army ended up in support units where they could not only do the job they were billeted to but they were experienced combat vets who could be counted on in a pinch if their support units ran into some deep doodoo. We called them “profiles” back then and they couldn’t pass a PT test or a tape test but they could do their job. I think guys like that earned staying in for their 20 but that’s just my opinion.