Seven members of the Texas National Guard recently found themselves redeployed – not to Illinois, but straight back to the treadmill. Their offense? Failing to meet \u201cmission requirements\u201d during a pre-deployment fitness validation, a phrase that now sounds suspiciously like \u201ccouldn\u2019t pass the push-up test.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Texas Military Department confirmed that the seven were swapped out before joining a 60-day federal protection mission in Illinois, where 200 troops were sent to safeguard government buildings during anti-immigration protests. A viral photo showing some, shall we say, generously-proportioned troops stepping off a transport truck didn\u2019t help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the age of social media, America\u2019s keyboard warriors took one look and declared the National Guard in need of a national gym membership. The department responded swiftly: \u201cOur standards will be high, uncompromising, and clear,\u201d<\/em> echoing Secretary of War Pete Hegseth\u2019s new mantra \u2014 and possibly every personal trainer\u2019s sales pitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cStandards are back at the Department of War,\u201d Hegseth crowed on X, reposting a headline about the removals. Translation: the Secretary of War just unfriended carbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hegseth has made military fitness his personal crusade. In a speech to top brass last month, he said he was tired of looking at \u201cfat troops\u201d and \u201cfat generals,\u201d which must have made for a very tense lunch at the Pentagon cafeteria that day. His new 10-point plan to restore discipline includes physical rigor, mental toughness, and, apparently, a nationwide ban on second helpings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Critics accused him of being too harsh, but Hegseth\u2019s defenders argue the man\u2019s just bringing back the basics. \u201cYou can\u2019t deploy soldiers who look like they\u2019re about to ask for extra ranch,\u201d quipped one retired officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No one\u2019s saying precisely what the seven soldiers failed – push-ups, pull-ups, or resisting the call of Dunkin\u2019 Donuts – but retired Major General Boe Young offered a clue. \u201cThe military has to be ready to deploy anywhere, anytime,\u201d he said. \u201cThe standards are there so you can handle physically punishing environments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Translation: if you get winded jogging to the chow line, it\u2019s probably not your time to guard federal property in Chicago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Young noted that being overweight isn\u2019t an automatic disqualifier, as long as progress is being made. But \u201cprogress\u201d apparently wasn\u2019t the word of the day for these seven Texans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, herself a veteran, weighed in sharply, reminding the public that the National Guard swore an oath to the Constitution, not to Donald Trump. Which is true – though in this case, the only oath at issue might be the one to skip dessert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Texas troops, meanwhile, remain stationed at a base outside Chicago while lawyers argue in court over the legality of their deployment. No one knows how long they\u2019ll be there, but there\u2019s talk of adding a morning jog to the daily schedule – you know, just in case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hegseth\u2019s war on softness, literal and metaphorical, is becoming his signature. To some, it\u2019s a long-overdue correction. To others, it\u2019s an overreaction to one bad photo. Either way, the message is clear: if you want to wear the uniform, make sure it still fits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the end, seven soldiers got sent home, and an entire institution got a not-so-gentle reminder that public image matters. The Department of War isn\u2019t playing around anymore. The new battle cry? \u201cDrop and give me twenty \u2014 or give me your deployment papers.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Your Deployment Gets Replaced by a Gym Membership Seven members of the Texas National Guard recently found themselves redeployed – not to Illinois, but straight back to the treadmill. Their offense? Failing to meet \u201cmission requirements\u201d during a pre-deployment fitness validation, a phrase that now sounds suspiciously like \u201ccouldn\u2019t pass the push-up test.\u201d The Texas Military Department confirmed that the seven were swapped out before joining a 60-day federal protection mission in Illinois, where 200 troops were sent to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-threat-to-america","category-trump"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/fatguardsmen.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6612"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6614,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6612\/revisions\/6614"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Hegseth Declares War \u2014 on Waistlines<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Democrats Cry Foul \u2014 Hegseth Says \u201cTry the Salad Bar\u201d<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Marching Orders for a New Military<\/h4>\n\n\n\n