59 Replies to “Meal Team Six”

      1. Aren’t people in the armed forces supposed to do regular training — which I would presume would mean running, all kinds of serious exercise, etc., which should keep them in shape? Whatever happened to that?

        1. JS, only a maximum of 1 in 9 is combat arms.
          The rest are clerks, Bin rats, drivers, clerks and then some more clerks. Even ‘soldiers’ who are not clerks think they are clerks. I personally know a soldier who is very offended that anyone would they would carry a rifle; they have anxiety.

          The CAF is just green welfare. It isn’t all their fault. We have had multiple gov’ts, going back before Trudeau senior who fucked the military off.

          We don’t have a mission, so what are we training for? If we aren’t training how can we get a mission.. and the cycle continues.

          On the upside, you just have to wipe a little sweat on that fat, miss a couple meals and the problem is less.
          Of greater concern is how old our military is, really.
          You can run the fat off young people, you can’t run the years off a soldier who is so broken down from age that they can’t stand for a 15 minute brief. Not that that soldier would have been of any use when they were 30 years younger.

        2. The USA isn’t doing much better since Biden. Only special forces are still fit. What a shame.

      1. Good question. I’m one American (and there are many) who would strongly oppose that. Except, maybe, re: Alberta.

    2. All 2,500 members of our deployable army could be in tip top shape, and it would take a marine expeditionary force 10 minutes. Surrender or die. Pretty quick.

  3. My rough guess is less than 25% of CF personnel are in frontline fighting roles, e.g. infantry, armour (not a lot of room in a tank.)

    1. Land combat arms, Infantry, armor, artillery, Combat Engineers, and some Sigs units are at about 10% of the land forces… Air components have less that 2% combat arms, and Navy are unknown as they can move from cargo ships to warships several times during a career. I suspect the vast majority of overweight personnel are in the support trades and have never really had to exercise since basic training. Plus that, historically there were annual physical tests in the combat arms that would weed out the obese members quite quickly.

      1. Back in the 1980s we all had to take annual fitness tests run by PERI (Phys ed and recreation NCOs). Not meeting the fitness standard meant early morning PT under their guidance. I was not combat arms but was subject to it nonetheless. Fortunately, I maintained a high level of fitness in those days so passed the test easily.

        The current situation is appalling.

        1. Still do, the FORCE test. It is four tasks; 1 – 80m shuttle run – getting into and out of the prone position every 10m and must be done in 51 seconds or less. 2 – Sandbag lift – complete 30 20kg lifts in 3 minutes and 30 seconds or less. 3 – Intermediate Sandbag carry – 10 40m laps, 5 carrying a 20kg sandbag, 5 no-load. Can only walk when carrying the sandbag, walk, jog, or run for the no-load shuttle. They have 5 minutes and 21 seconds or less to complete. 4 – Sandbag drag – pull a load of 130kg 20m without stopping. It is design to simulate dailly task a member my be asked to do. Male, female, old or young it is the same test.
          Most members can do this easily, but it has been challenging for new potential recruits to do.
          Members are entitled to spend 1 hour a day doing PT of some time. How units enforce the PT is pretty open ended. Some do it as a group at the start of each work day. Other let the members do there own thing and use the honor system that the member was doing PT. Combat groups are much more strict about PT

        2. “Remedial PT”–knew a lot of females who had to do remedial PT with PERI staff usually in the very early morning hours.

  4. For all that, the simple act of Biden declaring in the summer of 2023 that he would not be seeking a second term might well have resulted in a Democratic president.

    But no, the Democrats decided to lie about their leader’s condition rather than face reality.

    1. Not out of character for them – their raison d’etre is to ignore reality.

      Hence their socialism.

    1. Pancake Flippers. They can’t even fill a sandbag without getting winded!

      Despite the protestations of a couple of SDA posters, THIS is the state of Canadastan’s military today. This is what Trump is pointing out and it’s indefensible.

  6. I’m of two minds here:

    All members of the CAF must be members of a mess, by law, and the CAF extracts dues from each member every month. The mess is basically a mandatory drinking club. The mess at my unit recently tried to use some of their funds to buy sporting equipment, and were told they couldn’t for reasons of government stupidity. If they’d wanted to buy 10k worth of pizza, that would have been totally fine.

    OTOH, universality of service is a joke, and we need to stop pretending it’s real. I don’t care how fit our FIN /HR clerks are. Similarly, I’ve known lots of “fit” guys who crumble under the weight of a ruck with extra mortars & 7.62.

    Arthur Currie was morbidly obese…and Canada’s best soldier. The metric needs to be: are they doing the job, not BMI.

    1. There are ways around the Mess dues/NPF for fitness equipment. It can be done, but requires a bit of work. As mess positions are at best, a secondary position and not the primary job of members. Get it done can be time consuming. My last three units all had a fitness equipment budge in the area of 5 to 15k per year. All have over time built up extensive fitness areas in unit, in addition to what is done by base PSP staff.

  7. Here we go again.
    First – Considering, they use the BMI-index to determine if one is overweight or obese. The BMI-index does not distinguish between fat and mussel. In my 38+ years in, I have seen a number of very healthy members told they were overweight because of the BMI-index. Members falling into the overweight or obese category will have an appointment(s) with weight specialist who will do a more through exam determining body fat %. Based off of that, member will be put on a diet and fitness routine to meet required fitness. If the member is unable to do so after six+ months. They will be released for not making the universal fitness requirements of the CAF/DND. DND/CAF bends over backwards to get them heathy and fit. Some just don’t try and are released, then wine to the press how they have been discriminated by the CAF/DND
    Second – The complaints that DND is hiding information from the public. Probably true, but the MSM loves to use that information to project CAF/DND in a negative light. Can you blame them for hiding request?
    Third – All members must pass the FORCE Test once per year. This is the test to determine the minimal physical requirement of CAF/DND members. You don’t pass, you are put on the fitness regime with PSP staff to get back in shape.
    Is CAF/DND purfect, no. But, the people I have worked with in it I hold to a highstander than the average Canadian.

    1. All members must pass the FORCE Test once per year.

      Big deal. The Force Test today is a joke compare to what it was 30 years ago. No more 2×10 milers etcetera. I still work on a base some where in northern Alberta and the sights are scary to grotesque.

      1. Considering the FORCE test has only been around for about ten years. It is hard to say it is a joke compared to what it was 30 years ago. It is a good base line. The Express Test it replaced was not equal to all members i.e. a 50 year old male need to make the same standard as a 18 year old female. The requirement for the 18 year old male was about 5 time harder that the requirements of the 18 year old female.
        Everyone must pass the same FORCE test standard regardless of age or sex.
        The Ruck march (15km march with load ruck and weapon, followed by 100 fireman carry, and concluded with 4x2x2 trench dig) is still a requirement of Army combat units. Even though I was Navy, I proudly completed the ruck march annually.
        Depending on trade, there are higher physical requirements for the more demanding trades/positions.

        1. I’m 62 and I still catch up to the young combat types that do PT on this base. I do 12 to 15 km every morning no mater the weather with a rucksack.

          1. I’m 57 and regularly make the kids look bad. Than I step out side and have a smoke. I may not look to be in shape, I have a body of a god (Budda), but I can hold my own. The Navy when I joined back in the early 80s taught me to work hard and play hard.

    2. BMI is a JOKE of a health metric. A complete JOKE. I’ll only be “healthy” if I weigh about 135lb. Yeah, my 6th grade weight. Sheesh.

      1. Been saying that for years, but it is used as the baseline for health in the CAF/DND. A crappy on, but a baseline none the less. Now if you are found to be overweight or obese via BMI. There are further steps in the proses to determine if you are really overweight or obese and what to do about it.

  10. Meh, the study is based on BMI, which is utter bosh. BMI is absolutely the worst way of measuring overweight/obese. I’ve known plenty of troops with a BMI of 31 and not an ounce of fat. Why? Because a 5’6″ 200lbs muscular fireplug capable of running 10ks with a CarlG will have a BMI that says he’s obese, when he’s fitter than 90% of the population, and there are plenty of muscular fireplugs in the combat arms.

  11. But we’ve got some of the toughest, pie-eating lesbians of any fighting force in the world.

  12. DND spokesperson said that Canadian forces personnel self-reported their own body weight and height which were used to calculate their BMI partly leading to the findings of obesity. Obviously CF members are really 6″ (15.24 cm) taller than they reported so they are actually in top physical condition.

  14. Pugliese, the author of this piece, has a long history of specializing in spreading misinformation in the Ottawa Citizen about the Canadian military, no matter the topic. Over the past 5 or so years he worked tirelessly to discredit and undermine many senior officers based on rumour and imagined evidence. Non, to my knowledge, were found guilty, however some had their careers ruined. He apparently played that angle out and is now painting with a broader brush.
    He is, in my view, just another MSM sorry excuse for a journalist. Add him to a list.

  15. Let’s see the results of the American’s return to a focus on ‘lethality’ and high standards. Nothing poisons the cohesiveness or morale of a unit more than having mandated underachievers in the mix.

  16. Three quarters of CAF troops are majors or higher, they drive a desk, and they never -ever- go outside.

      1. I was told once, by a CF major, that they could stand up an entire regiment of majors from Ottawa alone.

        Because that’s how you get a raise in the CF. They promote you. Stay in long enough, you’re a major.

        1. Because if you don’t speak French, that is where your career stops.

          Speaking from experience.

  17. No surprise. Guarding the Tampon machine in the men’s washroom, is not much of a fitness workout.

  18. When I was in, it was called the Combat Fitness Test. 3 levels, gold, silver bronze. It included a 13k, a fireman’s carry, and the usual push-ups and situps. Never scored higher than silver. Missed gold by 7 seconds once on the 13k.

    Retired from army 17 years now, still do lots of walking, hiking. 66 years old, 15 kilos overweight, hasn’t slowed me down much.

    1. The Army still has has that. All members going on operational deployment must pass it. All army members must do it (at lest) one per year.
      This story is based off of the BMI-index which is pure crap.

  20. It’s a risky endeavour joining the Canadian Armed Forces. You run the risk of a Liberal (and now NDP) Government making decisions that could put your life in danger.

    1. Liberal/NDP allies in Hamas have probably asked them for troop support instead of just money…

  21. But..but.but
    We’re post- national!
    TURTLE Island has no need of “guns in the streets”!

    Why do u think the gov’ wants those 75000 scarey AR assault rifles that’s out there?

  22. Fitness of the crew isn’t a problem, fitness of the junk their need to work with is the real problem.
    Only time the Can Government worries about cost is when arming the warfighters.
    The CAF has always punched above their poor arming. The personal is the CAF strong suit.

    1. This right here. Boots on the ground/ship/unit are great. The equipment not so much. The boot lickers at NDHQ are to busy sucking up to the Feds and have little interest in what we need to do our job. The few that make it to NDHQ looking out for the solders, sailors and aircrew are quickly dragged through the mud. Forced to keep the status quo or retire in disgrace (see Vice-Admiral Norman for good man ruined for looking out for the sailors).

  23. Back in the early 80s, in my reserve unit, the only fat people were the colonel and the lesbian clerk. I could run for miles. The idea is that every soldier should be in sufficient shape and trained well enough to defend themselves. If you need infantry to protect clerks, the system is fatally broken.

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