Maj. Gen. Leslie Groves of Manhattan Project fame wasn’t what you would call svelte.
In my time you basically never saw anyone truly get pushed out just for being obese. I’m not saying it didn’t happen, just not to anyone I knew personally and it never happened in any command I held.
A lot of people who were outside the height/weight norms could pass a body fat test using myo-tape, and/or they could pass PT standards and there were ways you could prolong forever the “corrective” anti-obesity program.
Now, what I’ve heard from people still in service is that a few years ago the military recognized something that’s not news to anyone who was ever in service–we have an obesity problem not generally that different from American society at large. So what I’ve heard, and I hate to post this kind of thing in GQ as it’s not really a cite, is that in the past where there were lots of ways around being out of regulation weight now there is not. So now it doesn’t matter if you can pass the PT but are still over weight, you have to get your height/weight ratio in proper regulations or you actually get moved out. My understanding is they put you on a two year remediation plan where you must show continual improvement throughout, and at the end of that period some people are apparently actually being pushed out of the service if they’ve failed to make significant progress toward goal weight.
http://www.airforcetimes.com/article/20130320/CAREERS03/303200026/Colonel-relieved-command-failing-PT-test
Note that this officer only “failed” the part of the PT test which consisted of measuring his waist circumference. Other than that, he is a physically fit, middle-aged man.
Stormin’ Norman didn’t look like a sprinter.
Yeah, they named one of the first bombs after him.
Except in the Mess Hall.
The story goes that, when the aforementioned William Howard Taft was Governor-General of the Philippines, he sent a telegram to President Theodore Roosevelt reporting on the day’s events and adding, “Took a long ride this morning and I feel wonderful.”
To which the President immediately replied, “How is the horse?”