Dear GBZ,
I agree, there has to be common sense. But we're talking about an hour or so here. To my mind, I would have no problems at all in parading the troops and telling them that they'll be coming in at 07:00 the next day to carry out a fitness test. I would have pre briefed the sterling JNCOs to deal with the inevitable domestic dramas.
Its the military, I would expect my chain of command to fight my corner too, but at the same time, we all sign on knowing that we might have to actually work before 08:00 sometimes.
As an aside, I am reminded of one chap who attended CCS training in absolutely minging kit. He was a SNCO so before inspecting them, I took him to one side and suggested that as he was a bag of shyte, he might like to avoid the parade and the humiliation which would surely result. 'Thanks Al' he said '.. the wife only does one dark wash a week'.
Is it any wonder eh?