Expert: MARK A. HOWELL - 4/24/2009

Question
Hello Sir,
     My husband is in District one of the Coast Guard. As you know they have weigh in’s in I believe in six month intervals. His last weigh in, he was three pounds overweight, and the second one pound. They have told him that one more missed weigh in he gets disqualified. His BM1 now Chief isn't taking in to consideration that he works out runs every day and eats what he should. Also I have noticed they measure his neck then his waist line his neck is smaller for a man but everywhere is a little bit bigger. Another problem is that there are a lot of people who have missed their weigh ins more than four times. I know that this is because of their command. But my question is...  is there a curve on how much you can be overweight, and or could he be weighed at a civilian hospital instead at the coast guard base for more accurate readings. And if so could he fight this, and where could he go?


Thank you for your time.


-Sarah


Answer
Sarah,
This has always been a sore subject for me.  I hate weigh-ins and height/weight "standards."  The military encourages you to express your individuality and "think outside the box," but yet they believe in the "cookie cutter" approach when it comes to physical appearance.  Everybody should be the same size and look just alike.  Ugh!

His chief is a jerk for even recording him as 1 lb. overweight, that's absolutely ridiculous and you can tell that Chief I said so.  I'll bet the scales are off by at least that much.  Yes, he can go to the hospital and weigh-in, but his commander doesn't have to accept it.

Unfortunately he doesn't have much recourse until they try to actually disqualify him.  Then he can go to the JAG office and get legal counsel to represent him.
Sorry, but there's just no better answer.
Good luck,
Colonel H