Should the Army Height and Weight Standards be revised?

The current tape test is a joke. I was HHC CDR for a reserve unit on Ft Benning and there was this one female who looked like she was 8 months pregnant, but her neck was so fat that she taped out every time. Aside from that, I think the standards are a bit arbitrary. I am a pretty big guy, 6'2" 215lbs. which is right at the max for my age group. If I lost enough weight to get down to what the Army considers my "ideal" weight, I'd look like I just escaped from Auschwitz....

SGT (Join to see) - Sergeant; If you are asking if the military needs a more accurate (and more objectively measurable) set of physical fitness guidelines, the answer is "Yes.".

If you are asking if everyone has to exceed a certain fitness level in order to remain in the military, the answer is "Yes".

If you are asking if everyone has to meet the fitness level for ALL jobs in the military in order to fill SOME jobs in the military, the answer is "No.".

Personally I agree with the concept of "action testing" rather than the "exercise testing" which is being done now. (The number of times that you are going to have to do either push-ups or sit-ups in a firefight is exceedingly low.)

Yes the tape should be put in the trash can. (I do not believe in the dual standard for male/female we are all Soldiers). In my career I have had to tell Soldiers, some with very high PT scores they were flagged because of height/weight! 300 on your PT test and can't get promoted because your on the fat boy program!! That is just wrong!

To be fair and honest; I think they should change them and base them on a Soldier's Body Type. For instance, I had a fellow NCO that was about 250 but he was basically all muscle (not chubby or flabby in any kind of way) and he would pass his PT test with ease but he was always being taped on the Weight Control Program.

Is it fair that he should have to be on the WCP just because he doesn't meet a certain HT/WT requirement?? I think that is unfair to Soldiers, the current system does not take into account a Soldier's body type thus leaving no room for two people who may weigh the exact same but be totally different body types.

One will be considered overweight and the other not just because of the shape of their bodies. The Army should change the standard but only to account for a Soldier's Body type without making it seem as though every Soldier deserves to be on the WCP just because they didn't meet a non-flexible HT/WT Chart.

As long as the appearance does not detract from a military appearance, there should be a change. Reasonbeing there are Soldiers who have larger muscles than others, be it genetically or not. The tape system ensures that this is taken into consideration. Females, depending on their ethnicity are all proportioned differently. Taping of the hips, wrist and neck often reveals biased calculations and need some modifying to make it fair across the board.

To answer the original question, yes, I think there needs to be a revision. The question as I see it, though, is what are we trying to accomplish with a height/weight measurement. If it is an appearance standard, then some sort of ratio might be better suited. If it is a health standard, then, as suggested above, there needs to be some tie between physical readiness (PT) and the HT/WT standard. At the same time, there has always been the desire to have a standard that the commander can employ at any location anytime. Part of the reason that the PT test has been push-ups, sit-ups, and 2-mile run in the Army is that the only equipment you need to execute the test is a stop watch and a clip board. The same with the body fat test...all you need is a tape measure. At 76", I have been taped from pre-commissioning until my recent retirement, yet my physical fitness has always been the same...as smaller colleagues of mine were throwing out their backs putting on body armor, I was fine...yet there's always the negative connotation that comes with a service member that has to be taped.

It is time to revise that standard and to first assess what we are trying to achieve. Then, design a measurement that correctly assesses what we are trying to achieve. With the elimination of gender segregation for combat MOS's, it is an ideal time to come up with a standard that suits the job. If there is a correlation that says to be an infantryman you have to be able to do 20 push-ups, then that is the standard...IF there is a correlation. I would submit that any test should evaluate job specific requirements (for that infantryman(person, maybe a 5 mile road march with a 40+ pound ruck within a specific timeframe is a realistic standard). But as mentioned above, there is no correlation with being able to max the current PT test and being an effective infantryman or conversely an effective PowerPoint Ranger.

I was given an article 15 for diss-obeying an order to lose weight I was ten pounds overweight, another weighed in front of me and was 80 lb over but neck was enough to be okay???? "I'm fat but he's good to go?" WTF

If equality is being equal therefore yes I had to put out a lot of good male soldiers who could have stayed in under the female AR600-9 and PT standards

yes i really believe it should. case and point.
at the age of 18 in 1969 i tried 3 times to enter the US Army. rejected for being under weight ( 98 lbs.). on the 4th try with a court order i was excepted. I was sent to Ft. Bragg, NC and put into a fat man/overweight program. I was feed twice the amount of any soldier in the program. there was some BIG people there. i was total feed 6 times a day weight in twice a week. LOL i never gain a onuce. this went on for my first 3 weeks of boot camp. they had to special order uniforms for me cuz i was smaller then the smallest uniform made (even the female had none that fit. when i got out in 1985 i was still eatting double rations and weight 130. thats 15 years of under weight by Military standards. so yes i think they do need to change the guidelines.

YES! SGT (Join to see) , I'm not sure how it is for female soldiers, but from personal experience it's a bit out-of-date. When I left IET, I was in phenomenal shape, but NEVER made the Army's H/W standards. People in today's society are legitimately bigger than when this was created. I look forward to the day that H/W is revised, along with a more practical and applicable APFT.