People with health imperfections like myself could at least be used in supportive roles to free up more people for combat operations. They don’t need to lower fitness standards, but they definitely need to find a way to make room for people with those types of issues but are otherwise in perfect health. Hell, I don’t even need glasses to see perfectly, so long as I don’t lose my left eye I’m good to go! Damnit! Let me serve! It ain’t fair!

To me he is apparently saying that those who meet the minimum standards are the best and the brightest. This surely defeats all the liberal verbiage.

Well dickhead, how then do you explain that 72% of Americans dont even qualify for the military?

Makes me wonder if John Kerry’s comment caused a lot of kids to disregard joining the armed services ?? Who wants to go through basic with a bunch of “losers” in Kerry’s definition? Maybe we ought to start a campaign showing just how much our military members are winners.

Now even after doing the time, growing up, proving no repeat offense, the military wont take ya. If you want warriors you shouldn’t be surprised many of your best candidates here in civilian life are eehhhh a little rough back in the day.

No AC either. On top of that most kids walked to school. You couldn’t help but be “fit”.

Now, look at society…lazy, unfit, stuck on stupid (TV), lower academic standards.

Organized sports should be more than an afterschool activity. It should be an in-school requirement until a child reaches their junior year of HS.

10 Years of fitness is what kids need. After their Junior year. they can choose their own fitness destiny.

But kids need the same thing the military teaches (in their formative years), fitnes, motivation and discipline. Discipline is the key, motivation the way.

You won’t achieve that in Public HS There needs to be an alternative to Public HS. Preferably a school system that doesn’t see our kids as sexual objects or subscribes to the Jeremiah Wright theory of geopolitical and social views of the world.

That “Army Preparatory School” mentioned sounds like something I may have experience with in a similar program the Marines had in 1966. It would require a waiver most likely, not sure if it was for legal liability or an exception to the requirements at the time. Anyhow, I was drafted in 1966 and had 10 days to decide which service to enter. I chose a 3 year program the Marne recruitor was offering, ( he must have been a used car salesman before), as it had a 120 day delay of bootcamp, which gave me time to pay off some bills etc.. BUT, unlike the Army draft, it required me to sign a waiver because of my Football Center physique of 220 lbs, at 5′10″, overweight. I knew most of that was party beer so no biggy and I expected extra PT to shed it off. Little did I know, they had high tech outfit nicknamed, “The Fat Farm”, or Physical Conditioning Program,I’d spend a week in.

Near as I can recall, it was structured into a Conditiong Company, one platoon called PCP, physical Conditioning Platoon, and the other was Motivation Platoon. The Motivation Platoon was mostly cons for military or civy infractions and I’d see them running everywhere they went with sledge hammers instead of rifles, even their guidon flag had a 9 pound sledge end just below the flag streamer. Also they carried buckets to haul their concrete rubble they’d reduce from blocks to chunks.

MY PCP Platoon recollections begin with me in my first bootcamp platoon and failing the pull ups. The second week I entered the PCP program and it started with a daily 3 mile run in the morning. A break, then weight lifting and confidence courses, a break and PT till about lunch..lots of greens, meat and not much white food ( Adkins Diet?). Then the previous regimin in reverse finishing with the 3 mile run to a radar station near MCRD, San Diego. During the whole day, I had to wear this foam rubber tube from the waist up to my sternum, and after each event, the sweat would just roll off when I took it off. The atmosphere was a lot more laid back than regular boot camp and after BSing with the Sarge found that he had an aunt that worked for my dad back home. After I passed the PT test at the end of the week there, I was picked up in another bootcamp platoon and finished their PT in a breeze. I lost about 25 pounds in one week at PCP, and another 20 the remaining 7 weeks of boot. On my leave after ITR to home, my family didn’t recognize me at the ariport, at 175 lbs., ha. Later, I see where private companies were offering a program close to Marine PCP and were getting paid big bucks for clients…I got mine for free!!

One observation I recall in PCP was the plight of under weight guys. One had been there a month and just couldn’t put on muscle weight even with high fat, protein chow and the PT. If he didn’t pass the next PT test, he’d be washed out of his volunteering for service. Never knew such humans existed, and often think if there’s some natural limit to ones metobolism, the genetic diversity bank of diferent people to survive a humanity disaster of some kind where a certain physical make up would carry on the species…and then there’s sports steriods use to ponder on.

So, I’m thinking that Army Prep School, might be a Fat Farm etc., and suppose they’d need waivers for that like they did in the old days. I would think there’d be a waiver system for scholastic under achievers…and referals from a judge, to get around the requiremets and get educated and physically fit for service.

However, due to a freak accident / fused hip he could never pass the physical. He called numerous times to see if there was any other position he could serve (honor student all his life - took college courses in HS) but, the response was no, we will not (cannot) accept you.

I agree with several of the previous posters. We need to re-assess the entry requirements.