...is the Sergeant Major of the Army glowering menacingly from the cover of the Army Times saying "Lose weight or get out!"
By golly, now that we no longer need you, we're gonna toss yer widebody ass!
Heh. Anybody remember the challenges to discharges under AR 600-9, when the pencil-necked sunken-chested generals and their puppeteers the Sergeants Major solemnly intoned "Soldiers must be fit and able to fight on a moment's notice. It is crucial we have this tool to remove the unfit and protect the readiness of the force, which must be able to go to war from a standing start." Or words to that effect.
Leave aside that weight, per se, is not a measure of fitness. Leave aside that several blue-ribbon panels told the Army, "Make your PT program and test sufficiently robust, and the truly obese will fail, and the rest will be... fit."
"To hell with that!" said the pencil-necks. "They won't be pretty in the crappy uniforms we have."
Proof? What was about the first thing the Army did on September 12, 2001? Suspend discharges under AR600-9. But wait - I thought widebodies were a liability in an Army that has to go to war from a standing start...
Can't up the PT standards too much. We'd start losing pretty people, while the stout (not the obese, just the stout ones) would breeze by. Can't have that. Because we're far more concerned about looking pretty as we start our return to a garrison mentality, and it's emphasis on the appearance of discipline. Emphasis on appearance. Those of you who lived through the end of the 70's and into the 80's know what I'm talking about. How many of you "broke starch" twice a day? You'll know it's really on if they go back to smooth leather boots.
Courtney Massengale is stirring, brushing the lint off his nicely tailored, neatly pressed (and lightly starched) uniform, getting ready to assert himself as Sam Damon gets shoved into advisory duty somewhere.
By golly, now that we no longer need you, we're gonna toss yer widebody ass!
Heh. Anybody remember the challenges to discharges under AR 600-9, when the pencil-necked sunken-chested generals and their puppeteers the Sergeants Major solemnly intoned "Soldiers must be fit and able to fight on a moment's notice. It is crucial we have this tool to remove the unfit and protect the readiness of the force, which must be able to go to war from a standing start." Or words to that effect.
Leave aside that weight, per se, is not a measure of fitness. Leave aside that several blue-ribbon panels told the Army, "Make your PT program and test sufficiently robust, and the truly obese will fail, and the rest will be... fit."
"To hell with that!" said the pencil-necks. "They won't be pretty in the crappy uniforms we have."
Proof? What was about the first thing the Army did on September 12, 2001? Suspend discharges under AR600-9. But wait - I thought widebodies were a liability in an Army that has to go to war from a standing start...
Can't up the PT standards too much. We'd start losing pretty people, while the stout (not the obese, just the stout ones) would breeze by. Can't have that. Because we're far more concerned about looking pretty as we start our return to a garrison mentality, and it's emphasis on the appearance of discipline. Emphasis on appearance. Those of you who lived through the end of the 70's and into the 80's know what I'm talking about. How many of you "broke starch" twice a day? You'll know it's really on if they go back to smooth leather boots.
Courtney Massengale is stirring, brushing the lint off his nicely tailored, neatly pressed (and lightly starched) uniform, getting ready to assert himself as Sam Damon gets shoved into advisory duty somewhere.
Not only did McPeak demand skinny-waisted and broad-shouldered Airmen and Airwomen, he re-designed most of the uniforms to look "less military". That resulted in the Class A uni resembling an airline flight-deck crew suit. The Mess Dress looked even worse.
McPeak, of course, was a Clintonian General, right down the line, and still is. We now have him and his wife, a terror of the local social scene, to deal with in our local area.
The weapons, too. From a lack of use.
Best soldiers I ever had were the guys with PT scores in the mid to low 200's, not the prettiest bunch in the Army, but when it came to setting up comm sites in the AZ desert, they were still going strong when the PT studs were sucking wind! Can't retire fast enough, I'm not about to start painting rocks!
But you know what? That's government in a nutshell. The military just has a talent for distilling it into a headier brew. Well, maybe not just the military these days (think: EPA, Depatment of Justice Civil Rights Division, Obamacare's Independent Payment Advisory Board, etc.), but that's just the natural outgrowth of the current administration's romance with unelected, administrative, clueless wonks making decisions that have little basis in reality.
Snerk.
McPeak copied the KLM uniform *exactly*, going so far as to specify the same color, the same cloth weave, and the same design and placement of the braid trim.
*That* went over really well with the Tac folks...
John, you're right standards should be about stnadards, not a force management tool. If the Army or the AF leadership had the 'nads to weed out the truly useless through just enforcement of realistic standards, they wouldn't have to go through this every time the national priorities changed.
I'm a big guy. I enlisted in 72... was commissioned in 81 (ROTC) and ran headlong into the body fat standard.
At 6'1", my screening weight was 214 or something. So imagine the consternation when my body fat max weight came back at... 264. Commanders I had flipped. I was tested... repeatedly. Even was tested by the Navy doctors in Oakland. they all came back a little below (or a little above) 264.
Had a senior rating removed from an OER because that a$5hole smacked me for weighing 230.
Did mid 250 -260's on the APFT... could (and did) run 5 miles cross country... played football... the whole bit. Got flagged twice.... and then, even though I was RA, got the hell out as soon as I could.
I was in the middle of QMP'ing a guy (8th ID AG office) because at 5'8", he weighed 240. Had a college degree and a teaching credential.
He was also USAREUR weightlifting champ in his class and a body builder with something like 5% body fat... and it looked like he was carved out of marble.
If it was for MG Vouno, who did a flag waiver, we'd have lost this E-5 who had just recieved an ARCOM for a perfect IG inspection of his battalion supply room.
Back to the days of the witch hunt.
Frankly, at this point, you're much better off to be gay... then to exceed the numbers on a chart.
Delta liked the McPeak uniform, too. The reservists/retired guys could waltz over to clothing sales and save a bundle on uniform items. Really.
"Yes, makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap;
An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin' in full kit."-Kipling
I just got back from Afgan
Left me scratching my head asking "So whadya want me to do? Cut slabs of meat off my neck?"
Never understood if your passing the dang test why one would be taped. Just stupid. But I digress.
P.s. When he was at FT. Leonard Wood in the fifties they had to buy their own toilet paper for the barrracks sometimes. Apparently Curtis LeMay needed the money for more nukes.
We're fixing to cut the military to the bone. And, of course, the cutting will be done in such a way as to ensure as much functionality is lost as is possible to get away with.
That means, we're a decade or less from the next war, don't it?
Welcome Home LT CRPL!!! And thank you for your service!