Military personnel take extreme measures to meet body-fat and weight rules

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Washington Post

Air Force Tech. Sgt. Heather Sommerdyke spent $12,000 on two liposuction surgeries last spring. She was running eight to 10 miles, six days a week. She even switched to a starvation diet. It was all part of a last-ditch effort to trim her waistline to the 35.5-inch maximum for female airmen. She gave birth to her second child two years ago, and her midsection never quite recovered.

Sommerdyke is 5-foot-7 and has plenty of muscle and "the bone structure of a guy," she said. She can pass the other portions of the Air Force's strict physical training (PT) requirements: the run, the push-ups and the sit-ups. But her 37-inch waistline - not her weight - is her problem.

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There are reports of Marines employing risky weight-loss techniques even while deployed in Afghanistan. Sgt. Shane Trefftzs, who works in the operations division of I Marine Expeditionary Force, told Marine Corps Times in an e-mail that after his command announced a weigh-in, some members of his unit took diuretics, laxatives and diet pills and fasted. "We're in a combat zone. Is this a smart idea?"

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That soldiers are taking urgent steps is no secret in cosmetic-surgery circles. Jules Feledy, the senior partner at Belmont Plastic and Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, said he has seen a rise in the number of Marines coming to his office near the Marine Corps base in Quantico since the Corps tightened its standards. The Marines he sees are typically in superior shape, he said, but desperate to flatten their midsections to beat the tape, a measurement he, too, believes doesn't reflect physical abilities.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/31/AR2011013104522.html?hpid=topnews

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KEY WEST, FLA. - Mick Kruger is not out of shape.

The 38-year-old master-at-arms first class has never failed a physical readiness test. He routinely scores "excellent" on the mile-and-a-half run. He has run one marathon and finished three others on in-line skates.

His performance evaluations during his regular assignments have never gone below 4.0 (out of 5), and they laud him for his "superb military appearance."

At 6 feet 4 inches tall, he weighs almost 240 pounds. Yet the Navy is kicking him out because, it says, he's too fat.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/31/AR2011013104535.html?hpid=topnews

[ixion]

1. physically fit is one thing... but imposing size limits is stupid, in my opinion

but, hey, that's SOP for the military. :evilgrin:

[GillesDeleuze]

2. airforce size requirements

used to be about cockpit size.. don't know why they are used now

[Heywood J]

3. I can see issues if you can't fit into a piece of equipment

or something similar, but limits just based on "principle" seems stupid. In this day and age, why would you want to lose trained people? They've spent years and thousands of dollars training and equipping them, and now they're being booted?

[RamboLiberal]

4. Wonder what they do to you if you're in combat in Afghanistan

and you fail the test? Do they send you home and discharge you? I can just picture a new edition of M*A*S*H* with Klinger stuffing himself with Twinkies sent from home.

[XemaSab]

7. Even if you're too big to fit into a tank in Iraq

can't you go drive a truck in South Korea?

(Not to totally change the subject, but this is why I think women should be registered with selective service too. Only a small number of soldiers are on the front lines at any time and most of them are pushing papers or changing the oil on trucks stateside. If we were in a crisis situation, we would need all the able bodied men to go fight, and women could fill in non-combat jobs.)

[RamboLiberal]

12. Haven't you heard - the military says women can serve in combat

They haven't instituted it yet. But tell it to some women in Iraq that they really weren't it combat.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. This has been a hard problem for the military and police

How you come up with quantifiable and measurable standards for fitness and still accommodate the occasional special case. Its been a real PITA for years.

[eridani]

6. How about actual tests of physical competence?

What do tape measures tell you about anything?

[Countdown_3_2_1]

8. Their House, Their Rules,

Don't like it, don't join the airforce. This gal must love the rush of being a hotshot pilot, or she wouldn't have hopped thru so many hoops to keep the job.

In this case its restricted to pilots only. I think their is a reason to the madness. Its to keep only kids in the cockpit. These are the people with a reflexes and the speed to compliment the aircraft. But they are also the ones who don't think of the consequences of flying into combat. The older you get the more your self preservation instincts tend to kick in.

This gal could likely fly non-combat aircraft, but it wouldn't be the same. There are a lot of useful positions she could work in. But its only a select few who get to fly the best jets in the world.

I don't think this policy has anything to do with discrimination. Its just to match the kids with the plane that's designed for them. Its a military thing, you won't see this anywhere else.

[RamboLiberal]

13. She was a Sgt so I doubt if she was flying

Pilots are officer or warrant officers. Said it was flight line duty. She may have been flying as crew in a transport or refueler.

[Zywiec]

9. Her 37-inch waistline - not her weight - is her problem.

In the Army, no one is "taped" unless they are already over-weight. What would be the point of taping everyone?

[sammytko]

10. Same for the air force. No taping unless overweight.

And weight standards are pretty generous. For me at 5-2, my max was 141. Heck I thought I was fat at 112 lbs.

[happyslug]

11. I suspect this is part of the "Blue to Green" program

The name "Blue to Green" is for a program to get people out of the Navy and Air Force and into the Army. The Marines are caught up in it for technically they are part of the Navy (i.e. what is good for a Navy Petty Officer is good for a Marine Sargent).

The Army (and to a more limited degree the Marines) have had recruitment problems for the last ten years. The Army has also had a problem with retention of higher rank NCOs. This program sounds to me to be just one more hammer to get Navy and Air Force Personnel to transfer to the army.

Just a comment on why this program is being implemented in the Air Force and Navy (and since the Marines are in the Navy, the Marines).

Remember, while this is another "hammer" the Department of Defense does NOT want it to appear to be what it is, thus the application to Marines (Who tend to be already in Combat Units) and women (Who are NOT allowed in Combat units). Furthermore the Department of Defense knows if a female NCO transfers to the Army, the Army will use her to replace a male NCO in a non-combat unit, who is then transferred to a combat unit.

I have the same suspicions with the recent decision by the Department of Defense to end their policy as to gays in the Military, the DOD is looking for any source of recruits given Congress had refused to permit the DOD to recruit to many more Central American and Mexican volunteers. All driven by the need to increase recruitment, when most recruits do NOT want to go into Combat.

A similar situation developed in the mid 1970s as the US Army went from a Draftee to Volunteer Army. The Army, coming under a different set of laws then the Air Force and Navy at that time, were permitted to put women into every non-combat role in the Army. Thus the Army, unlike the Navy and Air Force of the same time period, could increase its percentage of female recruits to almost 10% of total recruits (With the Navy, Marine Corp and Air Force fall below that number).

The reason was NOT that the Army was more open minded, but that the Army needed troops and saw a way to reduce that shortage of enlistees by recruiting women. By the 1990s it had become so bad that the Air Force and Navy asked Congress to change the law so that the same law that applied to the Army would apply to them. Thus in the 1990s you saw a tremendous increase in the number of women in all of the services.

Just pointing out why I have my suspicions that this is driven by the need to get recruits NOT any other reason.

Last comment, the reason the Army had a different rule then the Air Force and Navy was part of the Universal Service Act of 1947. As part of that act, the National Guard became part of the US Army Reserves. The problem with that is the US Constitution reserves to the States the selection of Officers of Militia units (Which the act calls the National Guard Units). Thus you could have a State select an officer to command a National Guard Unit, and when the Federal Government refused to accept him as an Officer in that unit, you had a clear case of constitutional law that the courts would have to rule on (and the betting is against the Federal Government).

While the Air Force was the First branch of the Service to desegregate, the Service with the most segregation at that time (1947) was the Army. Congress in 1947 was NOT about to pass an act that would require Southern National Guard Units to have Black Officers if and when such units were activated into Federal Service (When Activated into Federal Service, the US Army could put a African American in over all charge of Southern National Guard Units, forcing WHITE Southerns to Salute superior African American Officers).

Thus while the Air Force and Navy had no problems with Congress setting who can serve where, the Army and National Guard had huge objections all dealing with race. Thus the dual set of laws from 1947 till the 1990s, the Air Force and Navy having very strict laws passed by congress as to who can enlist and serve (including what women could do in either service), with the Department of the Army given complete freedom to determine who can enlist and serve. Congress by setting up this dual system basically decided to avoid the whole issue by leaving any decision as to race to the Department of the Army.

By the 1970s the idea of African American Officers commanding Southern National Guard Units was no longer an issue, but the underlying law permitted the Department of the Army to change its internal regulations was still the law, while the Navy and Air Force had strict rules as to what women could do in either service. Thus do to the Army having the legal right to write its own regulations women could be recruited AND assign missions no Navy or Air Force female enlisted could be assigned under the terms of the 1947 act and the Army took full advantage of this difference in the law.

Yes, sometime the affect of a law passed by Congress is something the writers of that law never foresaw.