jvaccaro6 wrote:
Hrmm...well my "fat ass" is only a laxative away from making USAF weight; but what I was saying is, make them do boot camp, pay em or not, doesn't make much of a difference, considering they're still going to serve 4 years AFTER boot camp. If it gets more people to want to join the Military, and opens new opportunities for people I fail to see how it's a bad thing. Especially in a time of economic hardship, and high unemployment rates.
When I was in boot for the Air Force I was in charge of the so called "fat boy squad" which was a bunch of guys who were over weight and couldn't run their 2 1/2 miles in under 16 minutes. I was chosen cause I ran in high school so I ran with them every night when all the other guys were shining their boots and folding their clothes. Proud to say that every single one of them eventually ran it in 15 flat and graduated boot. From my experience, the main thing keeping people out of the military are criminal offenses and no high school diploma. The main thing getting people kicked out of the Air Force is poor work performance (mouthing off, laziness, chronic trouble kind of troops) and people just plain not wanting to be in the service. If you hate it, and reflect that in crappy work effort then eventually your path with run it's course getting you the old shoe in the ass while you're on the way out the door.
As a side note. The military still uses the ancient Body Mass Index which is widely known as being bupkiss. Guys who are on the short side but live in the gym have to get wavers because their waists and weight are to "big" for their frame....nevermind that they can outrun you and bend you into a pretzel. I was blessed with rabbit fast metabolism and ran marathons while I was in but some of my buddies had to go to the gym all the time just to make "standards". The new Air Force fit tests though are much more in line with real fitness evaluation taking into account run times, situp and pushup abilities, weight, height etc. The best way to go though is just be friends with someone from the HAWC (Health and Wellness Center) and get them to mark your scores better...hahaha!