Should Height/Weight be Disregarded if the PT Score is High Enough?

If height/weight is about professional appearance, the tattoo argument just blew that out of the water.

If you can PT and do your job, appearance shouldn't matter. That is what we argued for when the tattoo policy was changed.

I've always thought the answer to this question should be YES. If your PT score is good enough, then HT/WT would/should not be required. I always believed this. Then, I was injured during pre-deployment training in 2008. In 2010, I received a permanent profile to do the alternate 800 yd swim event. That is a GO/NO GO event. So even if I max my push-ups and sit-ups, my best score is only a 200. So now I cannot agree with the score high enough maxim. If the Army were to change the APFT scoring and grade the 3 alternate events on a scale like the 3 regular events, then we can talk again. For my age group, I have 23:30 to complete the swim, but I regularly complete it somewhere between 13-15 minutes. Why can't I get points for this event, and for doing it faster than the max time, just like the 2M run?

One thing about the taping that never made sense to me was that the bigger your neck the less body fat you had. Some people have naturally small necks and that can add on 3% or so to your body fat.

One of my friends is about to lose her ROTC scholarship over this height/weight thing. She enlisted four years ago and has never scored under a 270 and has had to basically stop eating all together because of proportions on her body she can't control. Just think it's a flawed system.

While the current idea of HT/WT may be flawed, there is good reason behind it. Body composition and BMI have an effect on your health and ability to handle loads as well as injuries. What I would like to see is a more complete BMI exam instead of HT/WT. Two options- the better of the two being to use a skin fold caliber to get the thickness of the tissues at multiple sites (bicep, tricep, subscapular, and at the iliac crest). It has been shown these give reasonable accuracy. The other option is to add to the taping. The circumference measurements should be neck, waist, hip, thigh, and calf to give a more accurate estimation of total body mass index(instead of just waist and neck).

My 2 cents.

Height and weight are complete BS to me. I was on the "Fat Boy" program for almost 2 years, passing all my PT tests. Extended scale for push-ups and sit-ups, my run was never great but always close to 13 min. Interestingly I could keep it under 15 with 50 lbs ruck. I was sent to the Darnell Hospital in Fort Hood where at 6 feet and 220 pounds they measured me at 2% body fat! They almost killed me trying to make me fit a mild I never would.

Do a body fat test on all soldiers and get rid of the current standard

I believe that height/weight should not matter if you pass period. I know there are people on here that might disagree, but for some people, a 270 or 290 PT score is not realalistic. Why not make it 250. The Army standard is 180.

Yes if you can pass the PT with a high enough score your ht/wt should not matter. I was one of those guys that was in great shape but because my numbers were bad I was force into the fat boy program. Even though I passed my PT and was in good physical condition I would get low evaluations in military bearing because my ht/wt numbers were bad.

If they can consistently pass a PT test at any given time and they don't resemble a bloated Jaba the Hit in uniform then I'm ok with it.