Hegseth, the Standard and Accountability

General
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I watched the televised portions of his speech at Quantico and I was impressed and very happy with what he had to say.
Although the talking heads aren’t happy, here’s the facts;
The bare minimum Push-up and Run time for Men was the maximum for Women when I was a Soldier.
So 70% for Men equals 100% for Women.

Now without a lot of forethought these same Women were manning HumVee Gun Turrets in Baghdad.
I didn’t understand it, didn’t agree with it but because I was a Maintenance Contractor, it wasn’t my business.

Back Stateside I end up going to 3 ACR to a unit that couldn’t keep their Strykers off the deadline report. A bigger bunch of Fat Bodies I have yet to see in one place at one time. Zero Accountability.
I tried to explain one time that the battle is Won by the guys who get there first and with the most firepower. I also tried to explain that this concept goes all the way back to the Civil War. (The first with the most, but I left out that it was said by a notorious Southern General)
I was told “We are Infantry, we will walk to the battle to fight if we have to…”

I grew up with Infantry coming in two flavors, Stick thin tall and ultra aerobic and short muscle bound guys with legs for arms. These Guys were not either one of those.
I was a bit taken back to say the least and very happy that my depoloyments would be limitied to NTC with these knuckleheads, then I happily retired.

I sincerly doubt if it was getting any better and my occasional trips to Ft Hood only conformed that.
I support Hegseth and to be honest I don’t think the experiment we embarked on to bring Females to Combat Arms was at all successful.

The General Officer crybabies like this guy;
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/ret-lt-gen-ben-hodges-says-hegseth-s-fitness-standard-remarks-were-completely-unnecessary/vi-AA1NTZQi?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=68e3f5022a7f436790fd0b517979dc91&ei=31
Are either lying or have been lied to for so long they wouldn’t know the truth if it smacked them on the ass.

I think Hegseth is on the right track but will face a lot of pushback from the Democrats both in and out of Uniform for doing so.

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Strict physical fitness standards for the military should in no way be controversial yet here we are. Clown world.

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You know, I spend a fair bit of time on military bases. Honestly, I would say that most of the servicemembers I see are probably around the same as during “my day”. I do however see some really fat, completely unsat types. Way more so than when I served. Not the majority, but I honestly can’t believe the condition some of these folks are in while still being allowed to serve.

On the flip side I see a lot more extremely muscular folks than there were back then. Sheesh, some of these guys and gals look like they should have IFBB Pro cards.

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I’m old as dirt so I was actually serving before there was a height/weight standard. It all started because they didn’t want you to look like a whale in your uniform and then around 82/83 they actually came up with the program.
It was needed.
We had a guy at Brigade that was likely about to retire who wore two pistol belts connected together to make one that actually circumnavigated his giant fat gut. Pretty disgusting.
Once the program came on board a lot of retirements began as pressure was coming down to comply or leave.

The thing that gets me is, it’s pretty obvious that a 130 lbs Woman who can max her PT test is still likely the weakest troop in your platoon.
On Tanks (because that’s pretty much my field) you were wanting to load a 95 lb 120 mm cannon round in less than 8 seconds, six was prefferable and four was ideal. Your not going to find a Woman that can do that three times in a row under pressure, it’s not going to happen.
Well I was told, we will just make her the driver. The drivers other main function is as the Grunt Mechanic, Women just don’t have the upper body strength for that.
There is no place in Armor for Females and I’m sure every other Combat Arms MOS has the same issues.