This whole thing has been a mistake, if you ask me. Back in the '80s and early '90s, before Clinton got in, Marines looked like the professional wrestlers they took as their inspiration. I remember a Gunnery Sergeant Zieck who could have given Hulk Hogan or Macho Man Randy Savage a run for their money.
At some point they decided to adopt BMI-based metrics in order to help Marines look good standing guard when the new President walked by. How much Clinton himself had to do with that I don't know, but by the time I was in Iraq from 2007-9 the Marines were the tiniest people there except for the Filipino laundry women contractors (who were wonderful people and good workers, but not ideal combateers). The Marines now have an eating disorder problem in order to make weight.
Recently the USMC has adopted a policy of selection, training, and policy exemptions in order to build bigger, stronger Marines -- but only to carry the bodies of fallen Marines to their graves. They have also started creating waivers for Marines who excel in the physical fitness tests to be bigger than is otherwise allowed.
It takes mass to move mass. Even for the strongest will, F=ma.
My fourth son was in the USMC and was quite small. 5'6" and no hips. He could carry beyond his weight, and did well (once someone had smacked him hard and activated him) in pugil sticks and other violence situations. He was in the end not a great Marine, though. There is a line where when the sergeant says "stop fighting" that you have to stop fighting, and he got that in principle but not in practice. Once he had been bloodied, Romanian Orphanage Boy emerged, who felt no pain and just wanted to hurt people. Useful in some circumstances, but not enough. Most trained servicemen are offered attractive contracts to re-up. He was not. They were right.
ReplyDeleteThe Marine Corps most certainly did use tape to measure BMI and did so as early as 1990 when I enlisted.
ReplyDeleteI stand corrected. I thought I understood that you just had to make weight, or that’s it.
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