I'm a product of Navy OCS, but all the military readers can probably relate to the similarities of any boot camp-type environment. Drill instructors built like brick shithouses, getting yelled at incessantly for not having your rack (navyspeak for bed) with proper "hospital corners", and getting PT'd to torturous extents day and night. I think one of my buddies I was going through with lost all his toe nails from all the running and marching we did. No joke, losing 40-50 lbs at these places is not uncommon. So it's very surprising that the Army is having to institute some pre-training "fat farm" for all the hefty recruits signing up. From AP:
The Army has been dismissing so many overweight applicants that its top recruiter, trying to keep troop numbers up in wartime, is considering starting a fat farm to transform chubby trainees into svelte soldiers.The whole point of military indoctrination is to fill out a bunch of paperwork to follow you around the rest of your time in the service, to lose the shit attitude you had in your civilian life (mine came back when I started blogging), and to get in shape. It's pretty sad that people are so obese that not even Basic Combat Training will save their fat ass. Ed Morrisey views at as a sign that we are failing our children by dumbing down Physical Education in our high schools. Or, maybe it's a sign that America is just too damn fat.
Maj. Gen. Thomas Bostick, head of the Army Recruiting Command, said he wants to see a formal diet and fitness regimen running alongside a new school at Fort Jackson that helps aspiring troops earn their GEDs.
See what the others have said:
12 comments:
I seen a female soldier (from a support brigade) in Taji one time so fucking huge, she was a qualified three-hundred fifty pounds. She cut in front of the line at the DFAC and filled an entire styrofoam takeout full of sweet and sour sauce. That day was the day that I knew the Army was going to hell in a handbasket.
Just too damn fat. Whether that's a sign of dashed collective hopes, like a jilted lover might feel, or just moral flabbiness, is hard to divine.
The smirk on the Marine in the foreground says it all.
Actually, I gained about 20 pounds in basic; but then again, I was underweight when I enlisted, and I had a drill sergeant who made sure I ate my carbohydrates at every meal.
Wow, that's one fat motherfucker in that picture. I'm "sure" he passes his tape test.
Wow, Army has a fat farm! So, I could get an education and lose weight - now that is incentive.
America is just too damn fat.
Let's put it this way unless they went to the fat farm, some people really would not make it.
The Navy has been doing this for a while. Something like the deferred enlistment program. Do you remember the tubby bitch in the DFAC? Man it was disgusting just to see her. I saw her get on the bike once, I went to stretch and do abs, 20 minutes later, she is still there, but, she is going so slow, she's not even sweating. Fat people sweat while breathing, so I'm not sure what her deal was.
Dude...I could swear I remember seeing her eating some Baskin Robbins for her apetizer and desert after her "tough" workout...
Doh! You beat me to this one. I linked to you from OYE.
Sholom,
I gained a bit of muscle weight too, but I also saw people melt essentially as the weeks rolled on.
I lost 70 pounds at basic training. I went from a little chubby to skin and bones. I got PT'd until I passed out in my own puke for eating the skittles out of my MRE the second or third week there. Didn't have much of an appetite for cheat food after that.
We had a CPT at Nasiriyah that was easily 400lbs. Skin-tight ACUs and a FUPA. 82nd Airborne.
Mmm KBR chow.
Despite how much press obesity gets these days, the idea of a fat farm for recruits is not new. In the sixties, the Marine Corps had a fat farm at MCRD, San Diego and I assume the same was true for Parris Island.
By the way, I was so skinny when I enlisted, I gained thirty pounds in Boot Camp in 1967.
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