Too Fat To Fight

Published on July 5, 2005 By averjoe In Current Events

The army recently said that many service men and women or potential new recruits are “too fat to fight”. Everytime I say these words I have to laugh.

No matter if I say it regularly, whisper it, ask a question, or exclaim it, it sounds funny. The words just seem to fit together so perfectly.

The meaning of the phrase seems so wrong. What about all those big and fat bodyguards and bouncers?

I think someone should put the “too fat to fight” charge to the test and attack a big burly bodyguard or bouncer to see what happens.

Maybe the army should have said, “too fat for a foxhole, too fat for a bunk bed, too fat for an Abrams tank, too fat for a humvee, or to fat too run and to fat to hide”. Any one of these statements might have made things clearer.

What are we going to tell all the Sumo wrestlers out there and how many lean guys are going to get in a ring with one of these giants (“too fat for a hamburger”-excuse me, these things just pop in my head) to prove that one can be to fat to fight.

Maybe the army should have said, “to fat for army standards” because being fat does not necessarily mean that one cannot fight.

Meanwhile I have my own question that is more immediate and pressing for the obese out there. If the fat get fatter, where would they sit?

Comments

dharmagrl

on Jul 05, 2005

Maybe the army should have said, “to fat for army standards” because being fat does not necessarily mean that one cannot fight.

Gimme a freakin' break. You're basing an article on what basically amounts to semantics?

We're not talking about fighting as in punching each other in the face or wrestling around, we're talking about going to war fighting. Armed combat. There's a big difference.

Texas Wahine

on Jul 05, 2005

I agree, dharma. This article is absolutely silly.

How about too fat to carry another injured Soldier off the battle field or too fat to run while shooting?

It's not simply weight that the Army looks at...the Army measures and requires Soldiers to maintain a certain level of FITNESS that includes healthy body weight.

Soldiers, from the tiniest woman to a big Samoan guy, must be able to meet the strenuous fitness requirements. It'd be pretty difficult to low crawl if you have a massive ring of abdominal fat, don't you think?

dharmagrl

on Jul 05, 2005

Oh, and let me add one more thing: I've assisted in the apprehension and arrests of 'fat' bouncers. Remember the adage 'the bigger they are, the harder they fall'? That's true, and you can add to that '...and the longer it takes them to get up again'.

Not exactly what the Army needs, huh?

foreverserenity

on Jul 05, 2005

It seems we have the same titled article! Link

Your comparing soldiers going into battle and being fit and able to help their fellow soldiers with bouncers and bodyguards isn't realistic though.

Like Tex said:

How about too fat to carry another injured Soldier off the battle field or too fat to run while shooting?

It's not simply weight that the Army looks at...the Army measures and requires Soldiers to maintain a certain level of FITNESS that includes healthy body weight.

Soldiers, from the tiniest woman to a big Samoan guy, must be able to meet the strenuous fitness requirements. It'd be pretty difficult to low crawl if you have a massive ring of abdominal fat, don't you think?

It's quite another story when a soldier is needed to do this!

Reiki-House

on Jul 05, 2005

Good Lord how naive. Firm evidence of how you place a sporting quality to war, as if it's recreation or something. Do you know GI's get shot at? Do you know when GI's get shot at they have to hug the earth? That GI's have to carry their supplies which are a minimum of 80 pounds and can be as much as 120 pounds? You've been getting the wrong impressions about war and I think you see it as a game. Where the fat GI just sits there and when he's attacked he'll just shoot back and kill the attackers. You need to make allowance for equipment, 120 degree sun, enemy machine guns which, when opening up, forces the GI's to scramble for cover, miles long marching, and the overall ability to be an asset to the men in one's unit and not someone who is useless due to exhaustion, weaker hearts, a lower performance threshold, the inability to perform to a standard where he won't get fellow troops killed as they try help him keep up. War isn't a video game.

Texas Wahine

on Jul 05, 2005

Smartest stuff I've seen you say, R-H. Excellent comment.

averjoe

on Jul 31, 2005

It's nice to see that all of you are filling in the missing information from the statement by an official from the military. The statement from the military was "to fat to fight". That statement is false and that is all that I was saying. I was trying to be humorous but it seems you guys are taking this fat stuff pretty seriously but I can take issue with your conclusions.

It is possible for a to fat person to go to battle and perform as well as a "proper weight" individual. Things may be more difficult but it can be done and has been done. Soldiers that are over the weight limit go into battle all the time.

You guys shouldn't take this thing so seriously but I maintain that the statement on its face is false.

dharmagrl

on Jul 31, 2005

Soldiers that are over the weight limit go into battle all the time.

Really? And you get your information from where, exactly? Personal experience? You've personally seen those soldiers go into battle? Been there with them, have you?

The thing that you fail to understand, I think, is that there are people here who LIVE the military every day. I think our experience, our HANDS ON experience, far outweighs any hearsay you might be able to come up with.

lifehappens

on Jul 31, 2005

Sigh. Too fat to fight is different from "being over the weight limit". I was over the weight limit the entire time I was in the army...but my body fat was well within standard. So yes, you are right that soldiers go into battle when the are over the weight limit, but (and theis is a big BUT) too fat to fight is a BIG differnce.
Lard-asses who can bearly pull their own weight in garrison, can't keep up in the field. As a medic, we had to carry wounded out to medivacs, load and unload hundrens of pounds of equipment every time we jumped to a new site....and I had an easy job! The soldiers out there who are too "fat" to fight are getting out for a reason. I supervised physicals for overweight soldiers and without exception, they were unfit to do thier job because of their weight and/or physical ability.
Tankers and infantry are the too most obvious examples. One fat tanker cripples his entire crew, one fat infantry slows down the whole unit.

Texas Wahine

on Jul 31, 2005

It's nice to see that all of you are filling in the missing information from the statement by an official from the military.

OK, bigshot..

"Every Soldier in the Tropic Lightning Division must be physically fit to succeed on the modern battlefield. Commanders will develop physical fitness programs that are battle focused for each Soldier.

Special emphasis will be placed on aerobic fitness, upper body strength and road marching capability.

Physical fitness is the number one priority of the day when in garrison."

-- Benjamin R. Mixon
Major General, U.S. Army
Commanding

(Commander of the 25th Infantry (L) Division of the U.S. Army)

crimson

on Aug 01, 2005

"too fat for a foxhole"
that made me laugh.

You guys shouldn't take this thing so seriously

I didn't take it seriously, but then when I scrolled down the comments, I was surprised. Some good points from all sides.

greywar

on Aug 01, 2005

How about : "Too fat to sit in a SCIF for 12 hours a day doing national level intel work?"

So instead we put them out of the military and then hire them back into the exact same job as a civilian at 3 times the salary, no weight or appearance standards, and no options to get anything but the contracted work out of them. Yep, the weight standards are *great* for an Army that is 80% support troops who have little of no physical demands. Keeps us nice and unskilled.

For the record I am not getting put out in this anner but rather I am leaving the military normally but this phenomenon is more and more common everyday. It is a massive economic drain on the taxpayer and a completely ignorant system.

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