I am being told to go to PT by the command on only 4-5 hours of sleep. As a junior enlisted, how do I solve this problem?

First, every soldier is entitled to a minimum of four hours rest during peacetime, and no limits during war. You took an Oath; however, that Oath doesn't include sleep. During war, sleep deprivation is common and; soldiers train for war in peacetime, so your inability to function without rest is no excuse.

2. I went without sleep for over 72 hours once, and until I became a zombie my Commander refused to release me from the TOC. I am sure many other officers and soldiers had similar experiences during their services. If the enemy is at your doorstep, will you choose to sleep or face the adversary? It is a win or lose option.

3. The only argument might be that your leadership lacks compassion. However, such arguments seldom work.

Suck it up. Your in the Army. I been in places where the Staff Duty had to round up the soldiers from the clubs in Germany because of an alert. It is something we do as we serve this nation. YOU ANSWER THE CALL! When I first entered the service we didn't have PT uniforms. Put the uniform on and get to work. They should reclass you to 11B, and then you can see what life and pride in the unit is all about. Have a great Day... GarryOwen.

The 1SGT is right you should be in formation. Suck it up and drive on! You will be better off if you do what is expected of you!

You follow your orders and show up for PT. Then you make your case to the C.O. and see if some accomodation can be made. If not you continue to follow your orders remember you are in the military. The enemy doesn't care how much sleep you get.

When I servered the only folks who got a break were those on the 0000 to 0400 watch. They got to sleep in till 0800.

no choice you have to keep fit as long as you serve in the military we use to do pt on just a few hours of sleep. the only way to get out of pt is KP or a medical profile witch means if you can't do pt then you cant do your job witch will lead to a medical discharge. it dosen't matter of your rank everyone has to do pt from PVT to GENERAL'S so suck it up and get your butt to PT their is no reg. to get uot of it

“ How do I solve this problem?” WHY this isn’t right….

Some peer pressure is what you need. Embrace the suck, You’ve NO EXCUSE for skipping PT; you're in the military and until the team gets its shit together, you're all going to suffer? ANd tell your PSG to do his damn job: NOT pass it off on the 1SG.

Go to PT. We’ve all been there before. PT is part of soldier/unit readiness.

Personally, my suggestion would be to show-up with boots on. I can tell you that physical and mental discipline is necessary regardless of MOS. Years from now you will be proud of your service... and your body will likely be better for it.

Suck it up, no whining, crying or bitching and go to PT.

Utilize the chain of command. There’s no way you or anyone else should have to make a daily PT formation or anything else every day at 0530 when you work a 1600-0000 shift.

New daily schedule: 0530 to 0630 = Pt. 0630 to 0700 = breakfast. 0730 to 1330 = sleep. 1330 to 1400 Lunch. 1400 to 0000 = work. 0000 to 0030 = dinner. 0030 to 0530 = "free time".

For your best answer forst go through your chain of command, if there is no satisfactory answer, then check with JAG to see if there are any current regulations regarding your directive. Second, as a retired Army veteran, son your in the Army, everything you do is to train/contain your ability to function in a combat situation, part of that is to be able to function at top physical condition even under physical and mental stressers without effecting over allmission goals. My opinion? Go to PT, challenge yourself, and realize you can do more than you think.

It is what service in the military is all about.Lives have been lost by not following the last order.No compromise can ever be accepted,ever.

I am long out but I can commiserate. Life in the 24.7 world. Nights and weekends. In the USAF we usually did not have mandatory PT. We had standards and were expected to meet them. It depends on your job. Your geography. Peace or war. Certain jobs, unless in hot combat had standards that ensured your non duty time was not interrupted. If you dealt with those things that destroy nations if mishandled or making critical human life and safety decisions you were allowed protected time off. Yes, you woul have occasional training, but still enough time before next shift. If you are responsible for caring for those not subject to the UCMJ you can't put them at risk. If you deployed into hot combat would you be doing the same job? In combat yes you might go a few days without sleep. But not day in day out for a year or two. Are you in the job of engaging and destroying or precision high level of attention decision making? When the USAF still had SAC, it was understood that care for the human was just as important as the mission.

Man up

1SGT is trying to solve a problem with a blanket fix. He needs to get with his small unit leaders and find something that actually works. Personal time is important. You start messing with people's personal time and the tone/readiness/quality of work is going to drop and the bottom line he was trying to pad with a little extra is going to come back to bite him in the ass.

I was in a non-combat unit in the Marines. There was organized PT 3 times a week initially. But I was transferred to a different unit and because of the weird hours we worked, PT was "On your own."

Now that I'm on the officer side, my free time is dictated by the flight schedule.
The wing got together and saw how broke physically and mentally a lot of the pilots have been getting over the years, specifically helicopter pilots with the Helo Hunch. So the wing went and hired a civilian company that is composed of a personal trainer, a sports psychologist, and a physical therapist. Really AWESOME people. Group PT is offered twice a day 0700 or 1300 whichever is better for you on the schedule. They have their own "Flyers Only" Gym/workout space/HITT box. I've utilized them multiple times for mental stuff (Which is NOT put on your medical record), lower back issues, and getting back on a workout program that specifically addresses what I need to work on.

The gym is for Pilots AND Aircrew so there's a lot of comradery and it's a great way to actually get to know the people that you're going to be flying with in the back. Being prior enlisted I never really had an issue speaking frankly to my Marines/Sailors, but for the straight out of the academy or ROTC officers who are maybe a little more awkward in how they're supposed to interact with the enlisted, PT is a great way to build that rapport.

You just gotta do it.

when i joined the Military i was told that they could work us for 20hrs and give us 4hrs sleep but that was the real Army, i don't know what type of Army we have now (Clear the way!! Bridge the Gap!!)

From my experience this policy is at local command level. I bucked this before as well. I was told that if you work over midnight then you have do not have to report to first(PT) formation.

If I was in your situation I would request a meeting with the chain of command to see what the policy is and if you can get excused. It is effecting your abilities. Maybe it will work. Stewing about it will just stress you out. If they do not allow you to be absent then you have to adjust your resting times. I know that sucks. Other option is too move to other unit. Some units have crap leaders and you have to suffer for it unfortunately. I always got mad about BS like this but it never lasted. Soldiers, leaders complain and the chain of command will stop it eventually. I retired with a pension so they did not break me with their nonsense. I sucked it up and got to the finish line. You can too.