Goodbye, tape test? Sweeping DoD fitness review underway

I've never made weight, the army standard are only fit for a track runner. When I enlisted I was 5'7" 175# had a 30" waist and a 42" chest. My body fat percentage by tape was 12 or 15 percent, but my meals were still rationed and I wasn't allowed desserts because I weighed too much. The standards need to be adjusted to modern society and updated technology. You can't measure a man's abdomen and neck and accurately figure body fat percentage. You need neck, chest, waist, abdomen, and thighs to accurately determine body mass. That and the current pt test does more harm than good. We've updated and screwed up so many things why not try adjusting this, that and develop MOS based pt tests for after initial entry training. The physical demands for an 11 series is not the same as a 91 series, or a 92, 12, ECT.

When I first got to basic I had to be taped because of my weight. I was 155lbs at 5ft 9in. Even my drills were stumped everytime when it came time for fitness testing or even just weight checks. It happened at AIT too. Pass my fitness tests but weight never dropped nor gained. It was during a tough pregnancy and then a botched c-section is when I had trouble losing weight and getting back down to proper weight. So ended up getting out.

Being taped is inaccurate and not a fair assessment of deciding whether someone is fit enough to be deployable or not. Now if you have a huge stomach and refuse to do anything to help yourself get fit then you should be kicked out.

Today's standards are not the same as yesterday's nightmares. It's time to start changing the standards so that more people who want to serve can actually serve and those who want to be video game warriors in mommy's basement can still hide there.

The tape test has never been "accurate." It has been "efficient" and "easy" to train.

The only reason it exists is because we have to write a regulation/order that EVERYONE can follow. When it boils down to it, "Height/Weight" (BMI) is the primary measure. Taping is an alternate measure for those who are outside BMI. In the grand scheme of things, if someone is outside Height/Weight, "chances" (statistical likelihood) is that the person is adhering to Body Composition Standards (which are only tested when someone fails BMI).

However, when you have 1.5+ Million people... even a 1% error chance adds up FAST. Hence the need to CORRECT the metric.