Text 19826, 100 rader
Skriven 2007-08-31 14:32:15 av Carol Shenkenberger (1:275/100)
  Kommentar till text 19804 av Ruth Haffly (1:396/45.28)
Ärende: Re: PREDICTIONS 648 70615
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*** Quoting Ruth Haffly from a message to Carol Shenkenberger ***

 CS> Yeah but here they seem to take it to heart and work it out.  I'm not
 CS> saying we *dont* have any fat sailors in Sasebo, but I can number them
 CS> on 2 hands out of 1100 people.

RH> That is doing very well!

Seems so.  My standard of 'fat' may be a bit wider than Steve's but it isnt too
far off.  They sent out the stats agan on the remedial program today.  34
people out of 1100 are on it but only 11 for being 'over fat'.  The rest
failed the run time requirements (a true hard thing for us being at sea so
much and when on land, in 3 bottle weather generally).

I know the story on 3 of those 11.  They recently arrived (last 4 months) and
were overweight when they came here.  Our ship (and most here) refuse to
transfer a person until they are in standards.  The rules are slightly vague
(you can transfer them if they are showing progress, but 'can' doesnt mean
'have to' so we do NOT).  So here, if you want to keep your career and
transfer on time, you get in standards or you stay til you are, or we
outprocess you.

That other ships and shore stations transfer people who are 36% body fat and
higher, is a problem for us.  Once they arrive, it takes us 9 months to geta
replacement.  The last 3 generated 'Personal For' messages to their CO and
CMC's for passing on their problem kid to the FDNF and the resulting 9 month
gap we have to take if we send them back.  A rather effective manouver as
we've never had the same command repeat such performance.  Had their commands
done the right thing and just descreened them, we'd have gotten folks who were
fit with no gapped billet problem.

We can deal with normal medical problems and the 'oops, this just cropped up'
same as anyone else, but we do not transfer our 'problems' to someone else to
deal with.



RH> Hmmmm, is it the fact that they're stateside based that makes Norfolk
RH> have such a seemingly high rate?

 CS> Dunno.  It seems possible some were descreened from sea duty possibly
 CS> and on the way out.  When we have the person who cant be remediated,
 CS> we send them stateside but only for 2 weeks then outprocessed.  It's
 CS> not many.  Most just 'fix it' because we tell 'em fix it or out.

RH> Could be you're tougher with the first warning.

We are straight up with them.  We dont 'blame' a person for having trouble as
it's as often partly genetics as anything else, but we require they fix it if
they want to stay in.

You can even still get a good annual 'evaluation' for a first time failure if
you do ok on all but one of the score areas, but after 2 'evals' out of
standards, you get a 'promotable' (Vice Must Promote or Exceptional Promote)
as your max score.  After 3 failures, you get 'Progressing towards' and are
not eligible for promotion until after you fix it.

The idea is anyone can mess up once.  Happens by accident you may just not
realize you were that far out of shape, but twice in a row is not acceptable
and 3rd time 'fix it or out'.

 CS> types that burn fat).

RH> Yes, I can just imagine a battalion run on shipboard. (G)


Ohh.  I vaguely recall them trying to lay out a track on the Fort Mchenry (last
ship). They are using to running 5 abreast or so and there was no way to do
more than 2, and the line was forever!  The front got to where the other guys
were trying to wait their time to start and that was kinda it <g>.

The other problem is the pitch and roll of a ship which they arent used to.  A
sailor *can* run with that pretty well but (guffaw) them landlubbers needed a
bit more experience to manage it.  Plenty of scraped knees and elbows though
they had looked mighty cute to my eyes in them little shorty shorts and cut
down T's til they went 'boom' on the non-skid.

 CS> Dunno.  I havent seen a fat one in Asia of the few I have seen, but
 CS> then most are in Japan.  You seldom see it here.

RH> Could be the change in cooking styles you wrote about earlier has a
RH> bigger influence than you realised?  It would make an interesting stud

I think so, as well as we dont *see* fat people as often here.  Most are the
wives or husbands of active duty ands they tend to trim down a bit here too. 
It's partly diet, and partly lifestyle.  People stateside do not walk 3 mile
round trips and carry groceries back.  Here, that is more common than taking
the car.  

There's a lady I know just from seeing her here inthe past 2 years.  She was
immense.  Possibly pushing 300?  She's not 'trim' now (possibly 200) but the
loss is obvious.  All I know is she didnt use to do more than waddle out of
the commisary to a taxi and now we see her walking around Tonoo with her kids,
each with a backpack or cart.  She's a little taller than me, maybe 5'5. 
Major weight loss and i'm pretty sure it's just from walking around more once
she got things so she *could* walk around much.
                                       xxcarol

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