Not quite sure what you line of defence is here CM :confused:

"If the article is to be believed" says it all. You are publicly criticising the moral integrity of an outstanding military leader with a service record that is second to none on the spurious reporting of the Daily Mail. Says a lot for your own integrity.

And if it's not spurious your defense is :confused:

The General would seem to be a breath of fresh air in the upper echelons of Whitehall. What about the other multi-starred officers? When did they do their last fitness test?

I think we should be told!

How to tell if a Daily Mail story is spurious:

1. It's in the Daily Mail.
2. Er, that's it....

PS. A better question is what journo Christopher Leake and editor Paul Dacre have to gain by printing this "article", other than yet another Daily Mail tin foil hat wearing scoop.

Whilst I completely agree with the comments that this officer shouldnt be graded wrt to the fitness test, to the same vein, I cannot agree with turfing out highly experienced, highly trained personnel who quite simply do not require the fitness strandard required to do their day to day job in and out of an operatioinal theatre.

If it was a porky para I was talking about, someone who relies on their fitness to operate, it would be a different matter. But to sack someone who is quite literally the best at their trade on a Sqn because they cant satisfy a bunch of premadonna mirror lovers is a bit dumb.

Priceless! That really sums them up.

Ah of course should of spotted that, well I look forward with bated breath for the forthcoming libel case :rolleyes:

This is a difficult problem. While it is true as said earlier that no one is indispensible there are jobs where an individual may be peculiarly suited, a computer programmer spings to mind, or posses such skills that their dismissal would reduce a capability for a significant period.

However while they may be highly effective in their current jobs they may not be postable to other jobs and hence block the normal movement of posts. This could mean that the brown end of the stick is held by some people more than it should be.

Failure of the fitness test should lead to a reduced MES and a reduction in X-factor similar to the abatement in different FTRS commitment contracts.

There has been thread after thread on here for the last couple of years condemning our military leaders for lack of vision, lack of leadership etc etc etc.

Along comes someone who seems to know what he's doing, and is universally respected by all those who have worked with/for him and guess what..........

.........................he's villified and pilloried for not having done a fitness test recently, even though there is no fitness test for Army personnel of his vintage.

Make up your minds, or better still, fire up the outrage bus for the bi-weekly fatties v gym queens away fixture.

Well put minigundiplomat :D:D:D:D:D

And of course the opportunity to visit far off places, meet the local population and then kill them (Taken from a bumper sticker I might add !)

If I can't take my leave or do AT, worry that I might not have a job after SDSR and do the same job day in, can I get an X factor increase ?!?! ;)

X factor for the deployers I say. All in favour ?

Oh, and to stay on topic, he doesn't need a fitness test to do his job. Actually, I'm not sure any of us do. The PT test came in during my time in the RAF and I seem to remember that it (i.e the RAF) did it's job ok before that.......

(And I passed mine last month. So no chip here.....:E)

PT test
 

Back in the late '50S there was also a sudden urge from the Airships' Hangar involving compulsory Physical Training, specially for aircrew. 'Twas said that the then captain of the RAF Rugby team had been approached to support the campaign, but that he answered "I keep fit to play rugby, and not the other way round".
Also, at about the same time a USAF study was circulated which had "found" that the best training for aircrew (specially LR bomber and transport types) was standing round for hours listening to other guys' lines in a room full of smoke and with beer on tap.
The campaign seemed to wilt rather a lot after that.
Meanwhile, I wish you people now subjected to this recurrent "body thingy" all the best - "they" don't seem to realise that people old enough to be in the Service have left Prep school ... (even those who never went to one); the "eyes of steel and jaw of granite" image still seems to be much loved in the Airships' hangar ...:D:D:D

Not to mention the "knob of butter"

Do RAF stations no longer have football and rugby teams etc who play in their local league? In the early sixties at St. Mawgan we had two football teams playing in different divisions of the local league. This was just after we had lost some National Service guys who were professionals....... and how the local teams enjoyed some revenge. Ah, the joys of a match against a Cornwall Constabulary team of six foot twelves for a five foot two left winger.

"premadonna mirror lovers"
We are meant to be in a fighting, military service are we not? whilst I understand not everyone loves phys as much me, surely we all have an obligation to maintain a minimum fitness standard, regardless of any testing levels (which in my opinion are too low!)
The state that some service men and women are in is disgusting and as a Senior officer in charge of fitness standards he should be setting an exemplary standard himself, irrespective of his age.

You wouldn't want Dr Shipman as head of aviation medicine so why should we accept this fatty!

Oh **** off Jayand......whats your problem man...

I have no idea what shape you are in, but even if it is then best shape ever, I think that I will have to put my money on the general if you had a bit of hand to hand with bayonets together.

Start by defining fit to fight ? lot of definitions depending on your job, but I am sure that if you were to surprise the good general at his map table, or steal his place in the cookhouse queue, he would be delighted to give you a good kicking.......Definately fit to fight in that scenario :E

As far as I can see he has done nothing more, all of his career, but set standards for fitness, when his age related role demanded it. And as for your Shipman comment, are you suggesting that if your aviation medic is a bit porky, that he's more likely to mickey finn you with some dangerous drugs ? :ugh::ugh:

mac,

Top quality bolleaux, well done Sir :D

If jayand is half as fit as he states then lets change the contest to both of them in trainers and running kit with jayand holding that very tempting second portion of cod and chips, who is your money on now :p

A few folk on here need to take a step and look at what the original poster was drawing attention to.

The General has not done a fitness test in 10 years yet gets to keep his £160k a year job whilst others on a fraction of that are losing theirs.

There is no hidden agenda, there is no questioning of anyones capability or integrity, not even the usual light blue/dark blue/green thing.

It's simply a question of whether folk think it fair that some will lose their livelihoods because they cannot trog up and down a gym whilst others simply declare themselves exempt.

The question that should be being asked is just how many other senior officers are adopting the same stance whilst their subordinates are losing their jobs :=

Jay-prat,

You claim to be 37 years old and from the real world but your little post suggests otherwise. Unless you are a member of the British Army then you don't need to accept Peter Wall. If you are a member of the British Army then crack on down to Whitehall and tell him to his face.....or is your claimed prowess in the gym not matched by the size of your balls?

As for Harold Shipman, wtf has that got to do with anything.

The point it's all about is credibility, if you are the man deciding the limits/levels of fitness testing it's not unreasonable for your subordinates to expect you to be in decent shape.
As many good leaders like to say "I wouldn't expect you to do anything I wouldn't do myself"
Everybody in the Services is expected to be of a certain standard of fitness, nobody no matter what age/rank should be exempt.
This ain't fecking Butlins!

And that sadly is that - no leader should enforce rules on their subordinates that they don't do - so find me a fat useless grunt squaddie to deal with.

in the mean time Crab Air plays in light blue, Torpy the (insert adjective of choice here) did his. I'm sure his replacement is current.

it might be a gang ****, it might be pointless and achieve bugger all, its the rules...... BEEP BO BEEP.

You remember the rules don't you? Stop bitching about it and either do it or tactically evade it....