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Picture Of The Day - FOBBIT FOOD

By Boquisucio on October 21, 2010 | | Comments (14)


One thing is for sure, CPL Rees is most certainly not going hungry on his deployment.

Boq

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14 Comments

By John of Argghhh! on October 21, 2010 7:27 AM
Yet, we won't give him a medal, should he earn one, because he's overweight.  And when the war winds down sufficiently, we'll boot him from the service, piously intoning (as we did *before* the war) that the rigors and demands of active service are such that it is critical that each soldier be a paragon of BMI virtue, lest they not be able to perform in the combat zone.

Even though just about the first thing we did, 'round about 12 September 2001, was suspend actions under AR 600-9, which is the regulation that covers being excessively chunky.

Of course, the Sergeants Major of the world chafe to bring it back into force, so as not to see pictures so offensive to their sense of martial spirit as this one.
 
By BillT on October 21, 2010 8:13 AM
I once stopped a Captain in full dress-down mode "counseling" the Three-Four  platoon leader by tugging him gently aside and murmuring, "You're trapped in a burning Cobra in the FAARP. Who do you want tearing the aircraft apart to get you out -- five-foot-nothing Specialist Theresa or a big moose like Lieutenant Allen?"

Then I walked away.

So did the Captain -- right after he asked Lieutenant Allen to please plan a fire-rescue drill for the next weekend...
 
By Mike L on October 21, 2010 8:25 AM
You can almost read the forward right guy's mind through the back of his head.  I was "taped" my last 9 years in the Army.  Didn't matter that my chest was 45, my waist 34, and my body fat was 13.5%, etc.  All that mattered was my 5' 7" frame was only authorized 178 pounds - not the 191 I was carrying (oh for those days again).  By BMI standards I was border-line morbidly obese.  As it was, I was only obese.  Also, I took "fat" pictures.  I was all in favor of the official picture being taken in underwear.  Oh, well.  It really is important to keep "staff" Sergeants Major and LTCs busy.  Just sayin'.  ML
 
By SGT B on October 21, 2010 9:29 AM
Being one of the guys having weight issues, I can (kind of) sympathize with the big man.  In Iraq, I didn't represent the whip-thin warrior of my youth.

But I DID pass, honestly, an Army Physical Fitness Test without any pencil whips...

...In Iraq...

Fat guys feel the call of duty too...  But I do hope that the lad in the picture was just taking chow to his buddies before knoshing on his chicken salad...  The usual thoughts still apply, that he would be a challenge to extract from a burning MRAP or ASV, and he really should be working on dropping the spare tire, but, like Bill says, he's prolly a moose when it comes to carrying OTHER folks...

In the old days, I'd look at him with distain, but then, in the old days, he'd be knee deep in a combat zone, and I'd still be stateside with a slick right sleeve on my ACUs, wondering who was the better man...
 
By MAJ Mike on October 21, 2010 11:17 AM
He's "boots on the ground".  He's at greater risk of being in harm's way that the guys who wrote the Height/Weight standards. 

By just being where he is, he's a greater hero than I'll ever be.
 
By Attila on October 21, 2010 11:54 AM
The guys getting the most harassment when I was an LT were my USAFA football team classmates. What he said: "All that mattered was my 5' 7" frame was only authorized 178 pounds - not the 191 I was carrying..." The fact that they had maybe 15% body fat and could kill you with one punch was sorta lost on the geek weighing them in the flight surgeon's office. With a heavy sigh, the docs would pull out the waiver forms and go through the motions, shaking their heads at the system buffoonery. Heh.

Then again, in my current job, we have Captains who fly the 72' who, I KNOW, can't get out of the cockpit window (secondary escape, post-impact, assuming you're still alive), but I don't think that'll be an issue with this guy. Hell, some can't get out of an MD-11's window--we had to beef up the crew rest area bunks in the jets from 250 to 280 lbs., still not enough for some...but, hey, if you can pass the bi-annual Class I physical, you're golden. There's something to be said for that, I guess.

I'm just glad he's Army...I can just imagine the jibes from Bill had this been a blue-suiter...*whew*.

 
By USMC Steve on October 21, 2010 1:49 PM
The boy is OBESE, period.  He needs to be on both weight control and food control, as well as getting his ass PT'ed off at every available opportunity.  He is packing at least 40 extra pounds, the equivalent of an M240 and a 200 round belt of ammo, plus some.  Wonder if he is gonna eat all that pizza himself?  To be quite blunt he looks like SHIT and is an embarrassment to that uniform.  No doubt he is a fobbit, but honestly, if he had to haul ass it would take two dump trucks and a skip loader to get it done.  Are there many in the Army that look like that?  Have things changed that much?
 
By SGT B on October 21, 2010 1:57 PM
Actually, he's wearing a shirt ONLY authorized for on mission vehicle crews, which means he's operational...  He goes out in an armored rig on the road outside the wire, where the IEDs and bad guys are...

Yes, he looks like crap.  Yes, he needs to lose weight. Yes to all of that.  He's most likely a National Guard Guy...

...But the fact that he's trucking hadji pizzas through the dust aboard some FOB means that he had to volunteer to be there, and that holds a little bit of water with me.
 
By OlafTheTanker on October 21, 2010 2:51 PM
Pic looks familiar, wish I could rememebr where I saw it before, including the backstory that I thought remember reading with it, something to do with he was on profile for being injured on a mission or something, and this was the result.

I too had my fair share of the old APFT height/weight insanity back in my day, every time my 6'2" 210lb  gorilla-ass showed up to a school or what not, regardless of how many PT tests I passed without issue, I was immediately flagged on arrival for being "fat"  (I hadn't been the Army "max" of 185 for my height/age since 10th grade) yet not to many of the PVT Toothpick types in the room who werent "fat" could single handedly replace a track block or a road wheel on an M-60A3 using the combat-loaded spares mounted up on the turret.... without the luxury of today's powertools no less.
 
By MSG Keith on October 22, 2010 7:34 AM
I too have an issue with my weight. But, I've passed every APFT except the one 3 days before my knee replacement. In July 2008, I covered the Army Reserve Best Warrior Competition. One of the competitors was a skinny-ass female who scored 300 on her APFT. They had to go pick her up in a vehicle during the 10K road march in full battle rattle because she couldn't cut it. Back in the Guard days, I had a gunner that was rail thin, always passed his APFT, and wasn't worth the bullet it would have taken to shoot him. But since he was skinny and passed his APFT, they kept re-enlisting him. Until he tested hot for cocaine...
 
By USMC Steve on October 22, 2010 2:19 PM
I saw some like that when I was in the Marine Corps too.  But I have to seriously wonder if this guy has any endurance at all.  I find myself wondering if this guy could pick up or drag me in all my gear while he had to move around in his, and how fast he could do it.  We are not talking about being 10 or so pounds overweight.  HE LOOKS PREGNANT.   I don't fault him for being there and doing his duty, but what happens if the shit hits the fan and he has to ruck up and move out?

The PFT/APFT are neither one really practical indicators of how fit someone is except for those particular events.  We used to have a 10 event test called the PRT, which was much more practical as a test of combat related strength and endurance.  Also, for most of us, back in the old days, the rear area types would almost never have had to worry about shouldering a rifle and deuce gear and fighting, but that is all over now.  Which makes fitness essential. 
 
By John of Argghhh! on October 22, 2010 2:31 PM
Steve - obviously, we're unable to answer this question from just the picture - but he's not any more over-built in the belly than a fair number of Div I college and NFL linemen.
 
By Mark Matis on October 22, 2010 3:58 PM
John, John, John - Have you ever bothered to watch any of THEM attempt to travel 100 yards at a decent rate of speed even when only carrying their normal weight of game attire?  It ain't pretty!

It sure is entertaining, of course (unless the guy has a heart attack half way there).  But it sure ain't PRETTY!

Now in the Lingerie Football League, of course, things are SLIGHTLY different.  There may be things flopping around whilst they are running, but it SURE IS A WHOLE LOT PRETTIER!

 
By BillT on October 23, 2010 5:08 AM
Back in the Guard days, I had a gunner that was rail thin, always passed his APFT, and wasn't worth the bullet it would have taken to shoot him.

I knew a Lieutenant who couldn't out-logic a sack full of wet mice, but he could run like a deer.

He retired an O-6. Never made Pilot In Command, still couldn't string two coherent thoughts into a single paragraph, but he could still run like a deer.

And, as I've said before, I'm pretty leery of any command that's more interested in how fast I can run instead of how well I can shoot.