Pete Hegseth says he has replaced overweight National Guard troops after a viral photo showed them being deployed in Chicago.
‘Standards are back,’ the Secretary of War posted on X, confirming a screenshot of a story about the action taken against the soldiers.
Several heavyset troops deployed to bolster security around ICE facilities were pictured in the Democratic city last week.
One commenter wrote: ‘Hegseth is going to lose his mind. I’m here for it… Texas National Guard arrives in Chicago… for the food I assume.’
Two days later, the National Guard issued a statement, emphasizing that all soldiers and airmen must consistently meet their service-specific height, weight, and physical standards.
The statement explained: ‘During mobilization for active duty, members are assessed to ensure compliance. In rare instances of non-compliance, those members will not be deployed. Instead, they will return to their home station, and compliant replacements will be sent in their place.’
Last month, speaking at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia, Hegseth told the country’s top generals that he was ‘tired of seeing fat troops.’
‘If the Secretary of War can do regular, hard PT, so can every member of our joint force,’ the Secretary of War said.
On October 7, a picture taken by the AP showing Texas National Guard troops arriving outside of Chicago, Illinois, went viral
Four days thereafter, the Secretary of War confirmed on X that ‘standards are back,’ referencing a report that indicated certain Texas National Guard troops were replaced in Illinois for not meeting those standards.
Addressing military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia last month, Hegseth declared that adversaries of America would ‘FAFO’, an acronym for ‘f*** around and find out,’ should they test its military capabilities.
Hegseth also said these new rules are ‘not about preventing women from serving,’ but added that the physical standards needed to be gender neutral.
‘If women can make it, excellent, if they cannot — then so be it … it will also mean that weak men won’t qualify. This is combat.’
Hegseth announced the restoration of training guidelines to their intended rigor, describing them as ‘scary, tough, disciplined,’ with the allowance for drill sergeants to ‘physically guide recruits.’
He doubled down that each service member and department will require high-level physical requirements, adding a combat arms field test.
A Pentagon spokesperson informed the Daily Mail that height and weight standards are service-specific. They highlighted a body fat calculator developed by the Army in 2023 as a reference.
The website requires soldiers to put in information such as their age, sex, weight, measurements and height to determine a final number.
Further instructions include a ‘one-site tape test’ or a ‘multiple-site’ body fat tape test.
If they fail both, they can request a body fat assessment via the DXA, InBody 770 and The Bod Pod – all formal body composition analysis tools, measuring things like body fat, muscle mass and more.
A department spokesman said: ‘We identified a small group of service members who were not in compliance and have been replaced’
The National Guard has since posted a statement on fitness standards for mobilization
Still, there is no clear guidance from the Department of War on what the failure threshold is for Height, BMI or a Body Fat percentage test
The Pentagon says, if a soldier fails all of the above, they will then be referred to the army weight control program.
Still, there is no clear guidance on what exactly the failure threshold is for a BMI or Body Fat percentage test.
A member of the military, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Daily Mail that the secretary is obsessed with physical training, overlooking other necessary skills.
‘I have two degrees, which should mean more than my exact specifications and exactly how far I can run,’ they told the Daily Mail.
‘He’s a douchebag,’ the source added.
The Texas Military Department did not respond to a request for comment.
It is not confirmed if any of the troops in the viral X photo, taken by AP, were removed from duty.
‘In less than 24 hours, Texas National Guardsmen mobilized for the Federal Protection Mission,’ a department spokesperson told military news website Task & Purpose.
‘The speed of the response necessitated a concurrent validation process, during which we identified a small group of service members who were not in compliance and have been replaced.’
