Posted on Feb 22, 2014
If Active Duty Soldiers have to meet or beat the Height/Weight and PT Standard, then why does the National Guard get to look like slobs?
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I saw a 350-400 pound overweight SPC in the Exchange the other day and I thought to myself, how or why would you not be out of the military (ANG or AD) looking like that. Who is this soldiers commander. I would like to meet him/her, because this soldier is just making the service as a whole look bad.
Posted 11 y ago
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Let me just throw this out here for the masses. There are more than enough Active Duty "slobs" to go around. This failure is not National Guard or Reserve specific. And I am sure that our sister services will chime in that they also have their fair share of those who are, well, not so fit... ;)
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SSG Zachery Mitchell
MSG Stankovich,
Thank you for saying what was on my mind. I'm stationed on an Air Force Base in Okinawa. We have members from the Marines, Air Force, Navy and of course the Army here. I see many active duty service members from all branches that look to be well overweight and unprofessional looking. It happens everywhere. Not just National Guard.
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SSG (Join to see)
Its the same as a civilian seeing one Soldier, just one Soldier doing something stupid and making a judgement on the entire US Army; Guard, Reserve or Active duty. It is just human nature. But, if there was no truth to it, no one would be thinking or saying it.<br>
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SSG (Join to see)
A lot of Active soldiers, are quick to say something about the Reserves and/or National Guard about not wearing the uniform right, overweight, ect. These people are all over the place as you all have stated. I liked the USAWTFM on facebook and as soon as they post a picture of a soldier doing something jacked up the comments flow about, "it's probadly Reserve or Guard"
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This speaks to a more serious issue that I believe the NG will have to address soon, but for some quick background: We are only required to take an annual APFT. Keep in mind that we only see our Soldiers once a month. A Soldier might fail the APFT or bust tape and we counsel them - say that's January. Then in February, they cannot retest because it hasn't been 30 days (a very real possibility because of drill schedules). The Soldier retests and fails again in March, but claims some kind of injury. April is already booked up at the clinic so the Soldier cannot get in until May. He/she is sent for tests, but now it's Annual Training (our two week training period) ...do you see where I'm going? Even if your NCOs are all over the situation, each step takes a month.<div><br></div><div>But the more serious issue is that we are losing good Soldiers because others who have lost interest are sitting in "slots." In the Guard, you cannot be promoted unless there is a slot for you matching MOS and rank. If there is no E5 slot, you cannot be promoted, end of story. If the above Soldier I just described ends up screwing around for 8 months, then starts a med board, it could be a total of two years where he/she is taking up a slot and junior Soldiers get discouraged and want to quit. I wish there was some kind of "hold" status or something where we could put people who are in the process of getting out so the rest of us can get on with the mission. I feel like these people are just a big time suck and they impede training because they are on my books but they don't train so I don't actually have all of the manpower (or woman power, whatever, you know that I mean) I am supposed to have. Constantly being asked to act in more senior roles while being paid in your current role could be an honor every once in a while, but when it's day-to-day ops, the word I think you are looking for is "abuse."</div>
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SGT (Join to see)
Coming from a guy who spent his entire military service on active duty, and therefore had very little understanding of how the guard operated, your post explained a lot ma'am. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
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SSG(P) (Join to see)
Spot on Ma'am. I know exactly what you mean. I'm AGR and I clear Soldiers from Supply on a regular basis due to HT/WT or APFT failures, but many are often flagged for a long time before the discharge action is initiated simply due to the time issues you mentioned. Frustrating and very true.
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CPT (Join to see)
Absolutely SSG Hurst! From my first days in the Army I saw people who wanted out who were pushed and pushed to stay in. I get not letting people give up on themselves, etc. But once you have assessed that this is not a whim (and generally, too, not a Soldier that we really want anyway), why not just show them the door. I have always wanted to do a study of the costs we endure by forcing people to stay when they want to go (just think of all the money spent on "treating" their fake injuries and illnesses alone).
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As a senior leader in the Army Reserve, I strive to set the example of exhibiting a military appearance and perform well on the APFT. As a Total Army - we must pull together and ensure we ALL present an appearance that makes us proud. No one should be able to discern in which Component of the Army we serve, whether Compo 1 - Active Duty, Compo 2 - Army National Guard, or Compo 3 - Army Reserve.
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SFC (Join to see)
We have to meet the same height/weight and PT Standards as you do. I also agree with what you are saying about the look. But, that can not happen because this is not a perfect word.
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