Posted on Mar 12, 2014
Should army find a new way to fat test soldiers???
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Posted 11 y ago
Responses: 20
We don't say "fat", that's rude. It's "excess energy stored in potential form, carried externally".
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1SG Michael Blount
SSG Hasburn - we don't say "fat". Perhaps "weight challenged" is better? Naw. Call it what it is.
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CW3 (Join to see)
We had a huge fat interpreter that got several waivers to join. The 1SG and Commander wanted to chapter her for being HUGE, but since she was so short there was no table weight listed, she existed outside of any regulation they could apply to her, since she could not be out of weight tolerance for a standard that did not exist. Was quite a strange situation. The reg stipulates things for people taller then the table, but not shorter.
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This is just a theory for everyone, but hear it out briefly. Why worry about the body fat measurements? Why not just have strict enforcement of the PT standards? Wait now. If the ultimate goal behind weight loss is fitness anyway, why would fitness not be the major emphasis. I mean, what do I care if you are heavier than I am, if you blow the Fitness Test out of the water? We need warriors that can haul someone from a blown apart Hummer, who can hump weapons, ammo and gear. Additionally, not everyone is designed to be "thin", some of us are just big boned, some tall, some short, some big chested, and narrow waisted, some big waisted and narrow chested. But...if you are big boned, you have got to be able to run.......I would rather work with a big guy who can gut out a PT test, than someone who can't pick up a ruck.
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If you can show me a more accurate body fat measurement method that's as fast or faster than what we now use, I'd certainly give it a try.
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1SG Michael Blount
When you have a 500 person bn, calipers or immersion testing take a lonnnnnnng time, and it's usually time you don't have
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SSG Daniel Rosploch
I agree with 1SG Blount on this one. It takes long enough to screen a battalion of Soldiers to see if they pass height and weight and even longer to tape the failures. Plus you have to factor in the time it takes to process all of that data into a usable format because the battalion sergeant major wants to see by-name lists from every unit, organized in 8 different ways....but that's getting into a whole other topic of discussion so I'll just stop while I'm ahead.
Basically, we need a better, faster, more accurate method if we're talking about replacing the way its done now. Otherwise there is no point in changing the system if it is going to make things more difficult and take longer than it does now. Always upgrade, never downgrade....
Basically, we need a better, faster, more accurate method if we're talking about replacing the way its done now. Otherwise there is no point in changing the system if it is going to make things more difficult and take longer than it does now. Always upgrade, never downgrade....
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1SG Michael Blount
SGT(P) - you're spot on. If somebody can come up with a better mouse-trap on this one, s/he deserves a medal
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