US Servicemen and Servicewomen Get All "Real Housewives"
Guess who's getting liposuction? I mean, aside from the casts of Bravo-TV's "Real Housewives" series. From WaPo:
Air Force Tech. Sgt. Heather Sommerdyke spent $12,000 on two liposuction surgeries last spring. She was running eight to 10 miles, six days a week. She even switched to a starvation diet. It was all part of a last-ditch effort to trim her waistline to the 35.5-inch maximum for female airmen. She gave birth to her second child two years ago, and her midsection never quite recovered.
Sommerdyke is 5-foot-7 and has plenty of muscle and "the bone structure of a guy," she said. She can pass the other portions of the Air Force's strict physical training (PT) requirements: the run, the push-ups and the sit-ups. But her 37-inch waistline - not her weight - is her problem.
They take fitness -- and body measurements -- very seriously in the US military, which is a good thing. But it's hard not to wonder about the "tape test," in which a little extra waistline girth is grounds for discharge. Between 1992 and 2007, about 24,000 Army personnel were turfed out for being too fat. And all of that, it seems, leads to some very junior high school girl behavior in unlikely places:
A 2009 study by two officers at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., found that nearly one in three Marines were so afraid of violating the Corps' standards that they have used extreme weight-loss methods, including starvation, taking laxatives and surgery.
But the rate may be much higher than that, said Capt. Paula Taibi, one of the study's co-authors. More than 70 percent of the 390 Marines who responded to her survey were from the junior enlisted and officer ranks - and not long out of boot camp or Officer Candidate School. If so many men and women in peak physical shape are using risky means to blast fat and avoid the measuring tape soon after joining the Corps, she said, then a lot of career Marines with far more to lose probably do it, too. The report concludes that unconventional methods for weight loss are "widespread" within the Corps.
There are reports of Marines employing risky weight-loss techniques even while deployed in Afghanistan. Sgt. Shane Trefftzs, who works in the operations division of I Marine Expeditionary Force, told Marine Corps Times in an e-mail that after his command announced a weigh-in, some members of his unit took diuretics, laxatives and diet pills and fasted. "We're in a combat zone. Is this a smart idea?"
How fat is too fat to serve? And couldn't they loosen the belt a little on the tape test, as it were?
Or am I projecting?
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Nov '10
Re: US Servicemen and Servicewomen Get All "Real Housewives"
The tape test is silly. I was always in the "fat boy" club because I was over-weight (I weighed about 200 pounds as a 6'3" male) and I sometimes didn't pass the tape test. I could do the physical fitness test just fine (though I always had trouble with pushups). Also, maybe this matters: I scored perfect on the pistol range and I could drop an HE round into the hatch an armored vehice at 200m from my M203 with consistency.
I don't know how it is now but when I was in there was no lee-way for a commander to simply look at a soldier and say "nope, not going on the fat boy program." Silly.
Jul '10
Re: US Servicemen and Servicewomen Get All "Real Housewives"
How did they come up with 35.5 inches? I can just imagine all the studies, conferences and 300-page position papers. The arguments among the 35.25, 35.75 and 35.5 factions must have been heated.
By the way, what's the maximum bust size?
Jun '10
Re: US Servicemen and Servicewomen Get All "Real Housewives"
This is a far cry from the Russian Army's problems. A large portion of the conscripts can't serve because they are too malnourished. Still, if you read anything about serving in the army in Russia, it's a great fortune to be rejected from that organization.
Another interesting thing this story shows that is overlooked is the clear determination these soldiers have to serve. The left frequently say "Support the troops, bring them home." It doesn't seem like these soldiers are doing all this weight watching just to sit around on a base in the U.S.
Jul '10
Re: US Servicemen and Servicewomen Get All "Real Housewives"
If you want to see something slightly surreal, witness an Army weigh-in. The weight standards take into account uniforms and boots, but there have been cases in which soldiers have been caught with lifts (to increase their height, giving them a few more pounds) so they require you to remove your boots and hold them in your hands while being weighed!
May '10
Re: US Servicemen and Servicewomen Get All "Real Housewives"
I'm not quite on board with the author of the study's assertion:
Rob Long:
If so many men and women in peak physical shape are using risky means to blast fat and avoid the measuring tape soon after joining the Corps, she said, then a lot of career Marines with far more to lose probably do it, too.
Perhaps the reality is that the new recruits are a bit more affected by pop cultural standards?
May '10
Re: US Servicemen and Servicewomen Get All "Real Housewives"
Personally, I think any kind of "tape test" is inane, other than for things like being able to fit in a cockpit.
If the woman can pass the required physical tests (running, jumping, pull ups, push ups, etc), mental tests (knowledge, psych), and skill tests (marksmanship, job-related skill) tests, what does it matter she has a 36" waist, or for that matter, a 48" waist?
Dec '10
Re: US Servicemen and Servicewomen Get All "Real Housewives"
Having suffered the results of that particular program in the navy I can attest to the asininity of the ever evolving standards. After a decade of the height/weight chart I had to weigh 10 pounds less than I did at its implementation. What does speed at which I run a mile and a half have to do with my ability to perform a job in a 560 foot submarine anyway? The military loses many fine service men and women who perform their jobs in an exemplary manner while retaining skinny idiots. If it was about the ability to perform or about health it would be one thing, but it is only tenuously connected to those important concepts.
Re: US Servicemen and Servicewomen Get All "Real Housewives"
I think I will disagree a bit here. First, for women *in particular* waist size is a factor in heart disease. Here is one study, but I've seen many. An excerpt:
From other studies I've read (but can't find links to now), the correlation is not nearly as dramatic for men's waist size and heart disease. So, in this case, I think I can support the tape measure test. It might actually prevent some serious heart issues from cropping up under the stressful conditions of national security.
May '10
Re: US Servicemen and Servicewomen Get All "Real Housewives"
I'm sorry but I have to take the contrarian position.
35.5 inches is a very generous standard and 37 inches is not consistent with the airmen's own characterization of her physical regimen and "starvation" diet. I've worked with enough journalists to know that they never let facts get in the way of a good story. If she really exhibited the required discipline, eliminating those inches would not be that challenging (glandular disorders of course notwithstanding).
And yes Ursula is right. Belly fat does correspond to heart disease for men and women. So the tape test is not at all a dumb test but a perfectly sensible test.
I think it's got to be a tough road to be a mom and to serve active duty, but a standard is a standard and I think the true conservative position is that standards matter. As for the liposuction. She gets points for ingenuity and perhaps it will cause her to think differently about the true cost of those donuts in the future.
Dec '10
Re: US Servicemen and Servicewomen Get All "Real Housewives"
In the case of a pilot, would not their dimensions need to be controlled so that they physically fit inside the aircraft?
They only make G-Suits so big, and then the system in the aircraft that inflates them only moves a certain volume of fluid, and the ejection seat is only so wide and can only handle X pounds of pilot and still function correctly, and the airframe is made to balance with a specific weight of pilot in the cockpit, and on and on and on.
Sometimes, when dealing with complex technological systems, the easiest part of the equation to tweak after the fact is the humans that interface with it.
It does not matter a whit if you are the best pilot in the world, if you cannot shoehorn yourself into the cockpit.
Oct '10
Re: US Servicemen and Servicewomen Get All "Real Housewives"
"She can pass the other portions of the Air Force's strict physical training (PT) requirements: the run, the push-ups and the sit-ups."
Strict physical training? What 18 pushups, 38 situps, and a 16:22 2 mile run is strict?
Having seen enough waivers handed out in the Army, I'm surprised that this is such an issue. Some of the men who serve, in combat positions, far exceed the limits of the tape tests.
For most of my time in the military I scored 250 + on my PT tests, but was always well over my weight limit, but passed the tape.
Jun '10
Re: US Servicemen and Servicewomen Get All "Real Housewives"
All I will say is that I could be used for ordinance at the present time. I've been marching around in circles in my backyard with a heavy backpack and a rifle but all I get is dizzy and hungry after about five minutes. I think if I switch to Lite beer in the backpack it could be easier and less taxing on my body...that Guinness takes its toll.
May '10
Re: US Servicemen and Servicewomen Get All "Real Housewives"
The "tape test" is supposed to be used to approximate body fat. But there is no ability for a Commanding Officer, or Medical personnel to call for an actual body fat measurement if the tape test seems to be incorrect. The only way to actually measure body fat would be to do a water displacement measurement, but calipers or electrostatic means are more accurate or at least provide alternatives.
I knew a guy that was drummed out of the Navy due to failing the tape test. This guy was a body builder, but unfortunately shaped like a box from the shoulders to the waist and a with a thin neck. Failed measurement by a good bit but had almost no perceivable body fat. It's a poor system, with no backup.
Any yes, as people get further along in their career, they have much to lose and will go to extremes to prevent killing promotion chances and risk being forced out.
Edited on Feb 2, 2011 at 9:38pmJun '10
Re: US Servicemen and Servicewomen Get All "Real Housewives"
People are different. Not every thick waist is the product of donuts. One troop I served with demonstrated his ability to do 600 sit ups in record time but the testers were not impressed and his waist size almost got him booted. He got a reprieve when they decided to go with a body fat measurement instead and he scored very well.
Fitness standards are very important but...are we talking fitness or appearance? If waist size in a provably fit person (proven by passing the performance portion of the tests) is that important because it indicates there may be a potential for later problems, shouldn't be be doing genetic testing to eliminate from service anyone who may be prone to future problems?
As for running, it's a good thing the Air Force requires everyone be able to run fast, especially since they won't teach any form of self defense.
Oct '10
Re: US Servicemen and Servicewomen Get All "Real Housewives"
My brother got booted out of the AF because of the tape measurement. He passed the physical, but his physiognomy or morphology failed their standards.
His job, requiring Friedrich Wilhelm standards? Listening to the radio, seriously. He was explicitly to avoid putting himself in harms way because of his specialized crypto knowledge. But he was the wrong shape and got booted. Stupid.
Within eighteen months we were at war and the military needed every able body they could find...
Oct '10
Re: US Servicemen and Servicewomen Get All "Real Housewives"
the other irony in my brother's discharge was that he specifically failed the tape test because of his neck measurement. The Air FOrce had enlarged my brother's neck during an operation to overcome sleep apnea.
So my brother got discharged because of work the AF did on his neck. Stupid squared.