File this under... "You Can't Make This $hit
Up!"
* * *
CAMP ZAMA, Japan – The Army is ordering its hardened
combat veterans to wear fake breasts and empathy bellies so they can better
understand how pregnant soldiers feel during physical training.
* DEAR GOD... PLEASE FLOOD THE EARTH AND START FROM
SCRATCH AGAIN...
This week, 14 non-commissioned officers at Camp Zama took
turns wearing the “pregnancy simulators” as they stretched, twisted and
exercised during a three-day class that teaches them to serve as fitness
instructors for pregnant soldiers and new mothers.
* STRIKE ME DOWN, LORD! PLEASE! MAKE IT STOP!
Army enlisted leaders all over the world are being
ordered to take the Pregnancy Postpartum Physical Training Exercise Leaders
Course, or PPPT, according to U.S. Army Medical Activity Japan health promotion
educator Jana York.
* FOLKS...???
(*DUMBFOUNDED INTO SILENCE*)
Developed by the Army in 2008, the course includes
aerobics classes, pool sessions and classroom studies on the physiology of
pregnant women. The NCOs learn special exercises for pregnant women, who
shouldn’t push themselves too hard or participate in high-impact activities
such as snowboarding, bungee jumping or horse riding, York said.
(*BANGING MY HEAD AGAINST THE WALL*)
During the training, each NCO must wear the pregnancy
simulator for at least an hour.
(*CLOSING MY EYES*)
“When they first come in, the males are typically timid
and don’t feel they have the knowledge to teach female soldiers,” she said.
“However, after three days their confidence rises.”
* TIMID... MARINES... (JUST... THINK ABOUT THAT ONE,
FOLKS.)
Sgt. Michael Braden, a helicopter crew chief who has
served in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo, said he was less than enthusiastic
about taking part. “I didn’t want to do it,” said Braden, 29, of Everett, Wash.
The 78th Aviation Battalion mechanic said he was ordered
to do the training even though he doesn’t have any female soldiers in his unit
and doesn’t see himself as the right sort of person to run the aerobics classes
that make up a large portion of the PPPT training. Despite his misgivings,
Braden strapped on the empathy belly and spent Tuesday morning learning
low-impact aerobics moves like the “grapevine” and the “V-step.”
“This whole thing is pretty uncomfortable,” he said of
the 25-pound pregnancy simulator. But, “body armor is a lot heavier.”
(*HAVING...TROUBLE...BREATHING*)
Braden said he didn’t know there was such a thing as
physical training for pregnant soldiers before he started the course. “I’ve learned
that being pregnant is no excuse to avoid PT,” he said.
* OK. THINKING CAPS ON, FOLKS. PREGNANCY AND COMBAT DON'T
MIX... DO THEY? (ANYONE? ANYONE AT ALL?) SO... WHY ARE SERVING MARINES...
GETTING PREGNANT?
(*TWIDDLING MY THUMBS*)
* SHOULDN'T THIS BE... AGAINST THE RULES? (SINCE
OBVIOUSLY PREGNANCY IS UNDENIABLY A DOWNGRADE TO MILITARY EFFECTIVENESS... DEGRADES UNIT READINESS...)
According to an Army fact sheet about the program,
“moderate exercise promotes a more rapid recovery from the birth process and a
faster return to required physical fitness levels.”
An Army study showed significant Army physical fitness
test failures, height/weight failures, and increased injury and illness rates
when active-duty soldiers who don’t take part in physical exercise during
pregnancy return to their unit, according to the fact sheet.
* AGAIN... SHOULDN'T "NOT GETTING PREGNANT" BE
"PART OF THE DEAL" OF BEING A SERVING MARINE?
The program, which is mandatory for pregnant soldiers,
was set up to get them back to their units quickly after they give birth,
according to Staff Sgt. Latoya Nieves-Gonzales, who is helping York train the
NCOs at Camp Zama.
“Pregnant soldiers were trying to do [regular Army]
physical training and they couldn’t do a lot of the exercises,” she said.
Soldiers have six months to meet the Army’s height and
weight standards and pass a physical training test after they give birth, she
said, adding that nine pregnant soldiers do PPPT training at Camp Zama each
morning.
“In the last year, we have only had one soldier who
didn’t meet those standards and she was already in the weight-reduction program
before she got pregnant,” she said.
Female soldiers typically add 25-30 pounds during a
pregnancy, said Nieves-Gonzales, who put on 20 pounds before the birth of her
own son, Xavier, six years ago in Würzburg, Germany.
That was before PPPT training was mandatory.
“My unit said: ‘You can’t do PT with us so just sleep
in,’” she said.
Still, soldiers used to mounting up with rucksacks and
rifles were not too keen on the idea of strapping on a big belly and fake
breasts.
“I’m not looking forward to wearing the pregnancy
simulator,” said Sgt. Matthew Prout, a 26-year-old member of the 88th Military
Police Detachment at Camp Zama.
The Army Combatives instructor said he was worried that
the frontal weight would throw his balance off during aerobics routines.
“It gives me a better sense of what the pregnant woman is
going through as she is going the exercises,” he said. “It will allow me to see
both sides.”
It never occurred to Prout, when he joined the Army, that
he’d learn to train pregnant soldiers, he said.
“My initial view of the Army was just kind of – we train,
we fight,” he said. “But my eyes have been opened up to the family aspects of
the Army as opposed to just the single soldier view.”
Prout, who is single, said he hoped the PPPT training
would help him relate to his future wife when she gets pregnant.
“A lot of people when their wives get pregnant just say,
‘good luck,’ but I will be able to be there step by step,” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment