I joined the Army out of High School in the summer of 1982. I was 6'2" and weighed in at a whopping 143lbs. I had 35 inch arms and a 14 inch neck. I was informed I was being enrolled in the under weight program. I had to reach certain limits or was considered to small. Now many of you may have had seen the overweight soldiers getting dogged. Life for me was different. I was practically forced fed. Get a bowl of cereal and a banana for breakfast ...no Private Storm, you are getting three eggs, three strips bacon, gravy (still to this day I hate Army gravy), oatmeal, French toast. No weight I could eat it all. I would sit near the guys who were being starved and pass off some of the stuff. It was like Thanksgiving at every meal.

I ran track, cross country, and played soccer in high school. I was light and fast. When I left AIT ( I was a one stop unit training OSUT) I weighed 175, neck was up to 17.5, and had less than 10 percent fat. Of course now nothing fitted me, and when I got to my first duty station I had to be given a complete new issue of uniforms as none of class A's fitted. I am curious if this ever happened to anyone else.

I put a kid in the army who was considered under weight had him eat banana' s and drink allot of water he made weight and enlisted as an 11b

Army basic in june of '98. Too many fat kids running around to worry about the skinny kids. Couldve ate a lot more but wasnt given any extra. Came out skinnier than i went in (6'4", 145lbs). Wouldve been nice to get an extra ladel of eggs and/or chili mac at the DFAC every day, sure was hungry enough in those days to have woofed it down!