Wing King relieved of command for excessive waist mesaurement

[Luigi59]

He expressed no ill will toward the Air Force for relieving him of command

He had failed the physical fitness test because his waist measurement was taped at 41 inches, 2 inches above the limit, he said. The Air Force responded by relieving him of command of the 319th Air Base Wing at Grand Forks Air Base, N.D.

“I offered the wing a final salute and then I left the stage,” Bush said.

Until that point, Bush had an enviable record. His previous assignments include serving as presidential advance agent for Air Force One, aide-de-camp to the commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command and deputy director of mobility forces for U.S. Air Forces Central Command at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar.

His military decorations include the Bronze Star, Defense Meritorious Service Medal and Air Force Meritorious Service Medal with three oak leaf clusters.

The decision to relieve Bush of command was made by Maj. Gen. William Bender, Air Force Expeditionary Center commander, who oversees administrative control for six wings and two groups within Air Mobility Command, which includes the 319th Air Base Wing. Col. Christopher Mann, vice commander, was appointed acting commander.

When talking about the abrupt end of his Air Force career, Bush stressed repeatedly that the Air Force has its standards for a reason, and no one should be exempt from them.

“As a wing commander, I have a duty and responsibility to adhere to and enforce all Air Force standards, and in this particular case, I did not meet an Air Force standard,” Bush said. “When you don’t meet the standards as the commander, you can’t be the commander.”

 

[flieger83]

The AF has been pretty up-front about this since the latest "change to the change to the revision" of the fitness test.

We "lost" a lot of folks at my last AFRC base because they couldn't pass the test..."ChairForce" won't work anymore...at least it shouldn't.

Good of him to "man up" about his failing...would have been BETTER for him to simply have met the standard.

Okay, not simple...I hit that 41" "once upon a time" before a test...and busted my A** at the gym and AWAY from the table...and met the standard and still meet it today, comfortably.

Sad story.

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83

 

[LineInTheSand]

I respect that he owned up to it. He's right.

 

[kinnem]

Well, having 25 years in makes it a bit easier to own up to. Glad he did though.

 

[Bullet]

Interesting though that art the latest Corona (the yearly summit where are the AF leadership meets for a few days to talk about the latest AF issues), the CSAF talked about how he wants to remove the waist measurement as one of the factors in the PT test. He sees it as arbitrary as silly to use as a way to measure how well someone is fit for combat. I've seen quite a few guys who were into lifting during my career, and they always had trouble meeting waist measurement standards, even though no one could possibly question whether they were fit enough for combat.

I also was friends with a world class marathon runner in one of my past squadrons. And he ALWAYS had problems with the bike test simply because he couldn't get his heart rate to increase enough. We almost re-named him "Vampire" because his resting heart rate was in the low 20s! We thought he must have been one ofthe living dead!

I guess the latest fitness fad of cross fit may be the best PT program out there for keeping someone both in current AF standards, and for preparing one for combat.