Sailors face more lenient body fat rules | Fox News

There is no common sense or math behind that decision. That logic provides that over 106 million Americans would qualify for service. Since less than 1% of that number serves at any given time, there should never be an issue with getting recruits. On top of that, a lot of that two-thirds consists of children, the elderly, and felons.

After reading the article, it reads more along the lines of protecting the good old boys. We do not want to throw out the fat bodies that can no longer perform the physical portion of their job because they are SME's. If they are SME's that we cannot afford to lose, they should create a program to keep them on as techs of some sort rather than lowering the standards across the board.

I am sure any of us could continue this in a more in depth argument with these geniuses, but what is the point. At that rank, they are politicians and I would expect nothing less than being completely disconnected from reality.

/facepalm

So the Navy might become the 'fat' service now? At least their blues hide it well. Sailors can't meet standard so we give them more and more chances. My old roommate was in the Navy and he was extremely overweight, and talked about how the Navy was thinking of kicking him out for over TWO years before he left the service honorably. They didn't want to lose his skill set after they put all that $$$$ into training him. Standards are standards, and if you don't have the discipline and determination to meet them look for a job elsewhere. Sorry if that's too harsh for you, but I'm not willing to sacrifice the safety of my Nation because of 'second' chances.

Ok , here is the skinny NO pun intended. I retired in 2013 at 46 and my last PRT I was 19 %. The problem is requiting they are letting people join already at 22% if you are 19-20 and already at 22 % then you will definitely have problems as you age that is just pure science. I worked my ass off in the end because it was the right thing to do as a leader if I couldn't pass the BF and my PRT category how can I ask my troops to do it if I could not.


The Navy has been cracking down on PRT believe it or not. The problem started in 2010 when the Navy came out and said if you do not pass the body fat you can not take the test, it is an out right failure. The thing is if you fail 3 test in 4 years you get kicked out. So this all added up to the higher numbers from 2011-2015. You use to be able to get a operational waiver if you were at 23%-26% and your body fat would not count as a failure if you scored a High or better in all categories on the PRT. The Chiefs are the ones that wanted to do away with that rule that the CO can not waive the BF, if you scored a higher or better, on everything they just wanted a pass or fail and that is what big Navy gave us. So you can have someone who can score an outstanding on every thing on PRT and it means nothing if you can not pass the 22% BF or 23 if over 40. Incase everyone does not know the official body fat % for DOD is 26% but each service can adjust to their service need. The problem is they never should have taken the CO's capability to let someone get a pass if they are over by 1 or 2 % and pass the PRT with a overall High or better. This was our own fault