Secretary of War Pete Hegseth convened an extraordinary meeting of hundreds of the nations Flag officers and essentially challenged them to pass the same Presidential Physical Fitness test that so many of us ancient relics had to attempt in elementary school. Word on the base is that the enlisted personnel seem to like the meeting better than they did.
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I served 22 years in the Marine Corps. I’m retired now & live near a large Army installation. I have been dismayed to see so many soldiers clearly overweight & not properly groomed. You always have the occasional sh*tbag, but it has become epidemic. So I am beyond thrilled to have Pete Hegseth come on board, shake things up, put these politicians in uniform on notice & get our war-fighting machine back in mint condition.
Thank you for your sacrifices, both great and small.
I think “Thank you for your service” has posible become a reflex, so I put some thought to the above, and it has become my standard.
That said, also:
Thank you for your service.🇺🇸
There was another strike by government workers and I was one of them. It took place in 1970 at the U.S. Post Office Department. For me it only lasted a couple of days. I was in Detroit but in New York it went on a bit longer. I was young & still living at home but lots of my coworkers had second jobs doing anything they could find. Another big part was management. It’s what eventually led to the term “Going Postal”, shooting of managers & even other employees. Here’s some info on it. https://newlaborpress.org/2024/12/31/our-history-the-1970-postal-workers-wildcat-strike/
Didn’t work for Klinger. Hope it works now.
NSA spokesman John Kirby (Biden admin) was a rear admiral in the Navy. What else do you need to know?
And of course, Full Metal Jacket spawned one of the great philosophical debates that one has after a few beers – If more than one reach around is given how would one pluralize it?
Goat herd?
“Reaches around”. Some incorrectly argue “reacharounds”, but think attorneys general, brothers in law, etc.
As a retired 1st responder I wonder about how we (PD and FD) are frequently portrayed on TV and in movies as ‘overweight’. How do you chase a slim perp, climb a ladder…
Politics got in the way and lead me to an earlier retirement than expected.
Have you seen the new PT test for the Army?
3-rep max deadlift; Hand-release push-ups with arm extension; Sprint-drag-carry; Plank; Two-mile run.
I was a bomber pilot; I can see the utility of the pushups, two mile run, and plank. The rest is of limited utility to either my mx troops or fellow crewmembers.
Thank you for your sacrifices, both great and small. I think “thank you for your service” although well meant can almost get trite.
What Harry Said.
I ABSOLUTELY LOVED Hegseth’s speech!!! I’m a retired Lt Col, and it made me want to join up again at the age of 65. (And for damn sure right now I can do more sit-ups and pushups in a minute than most of those fatties sitting in that audience.) The fact that any of those tubs of goo took exception to SECWAR’s words is all the proof anybody needs to realize it’s high time we clean house, push out the trash, and get back to the hardcore business of warfighting. And the fatness piece of it only part of the… Read more »
Thank you for your sacrifices, both great and small. Almost enlisted in the Navy; long story. 4F as I was pigeon toed, corrected by inserts in shoes.
I retired after 27 years of service because I could no longer physically do the things I required/expected of my troops. My condition was medical (and took another 20 years after to resolve after I retired). I used to tell my soldiers that our human minds can only concentrate on so many issues, and whether we know it or not, our mind prioritizes those issues. The number one issue is physical health. All other issues fall below physical health in priority. So my units always maintained a robust physical fitness/readiness program. You can actually do that without that program being… Read more »
Thank you for your sacrifices, both great and small.
It’s true that modern weapons systems like drones require skill sets that soldiers did not need in the past, such as computer gaming skills, as Keith Jackson said. However, even those who have roles that do not necessarily require a high degree of fitness will always be better able to fulfil those roles if they are fit. Who do you want at the controls of the drone, the fit alert operator, or the fat, lethargic lump? The new weapons systems simply do not make physical ability irrelevant. The invention of the crossbow did not do this, the invention of the… Read more »
This is all true. What is also true, from a purely operational standpoint, is that if you are a fatbody POS and you’re called upon to function in a kinetic area you are a hindrance to rapid movement/action in that area. For instance — The job of a cook doesn’t require a lot of physical fitness and marksmanship skill. Yet we (the U.S. Marine Corps, I don’t really know if this applies to other branches) require cooks to be as fit and as capable with small arms as the grunts they feed. If anything unexpected happens while that cook is… Read more »