Top soldier calls out leaders to ‘show up’ at PT, dining facilities

The Army’s top enlisted soldier has called for leaders to “show up” at both physical training sessions and their soldiers’ dining facilities.

“What I ask you all as leaders is, are you there?” Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston said to an audience of nearly 800 officers and senior enlisted on April 26 at the service’s annual Holistic Health and Fitness Symposium.

“You don’t have to lead it, you don’t have to be up front, you just have to be present,” Grinston said.

Grinston had good company at the event, as Col. Michael Kloepper, commander of the 173rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) drilled into the core of what the new health and fitness program, also called H2F, means for soldiers during another session. And physical fitness, or PT, may not even be the main point.

“PT isn’t about PT,” Kloepper said. “The Army does not have a pushup problem.”