Navy Moves to Trim the Fat Out of Its Ranks : Fitness: Revised test standards aim to make overweight personnel shape up. If they don’t, they’re out of the service.

Putting a new slant on the adage “shape up or ship out,” the Navy is engaged in exercises to literally thin its ranks.

The Navy is tightening its physical fitness standards for all uniformed personnel, measuring the girth of each sailor and counting out a required number of sit-ups.

Under the stricter standards, Navy officers and enlisted personnel stationed in Long Beach, San Diego, Point Mugu and beyond have to pass physical fitness tests at least five out of eight times over a four-year period.

The old, more lax system allowed Navy men and women to remain in uniform if they managed to pass two out of eight physical tests. Too many people with weight problems slid by, officials said, relying on crash diets or short-lived exercise programs before the biannual tests.

“It’s just been a complacency thing in the Navy that weight was not a big deal,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Randall Jacobs, fitness coordinator for Point Mugu Naval Air Weapons Station in Ventura County. “It’s been so easy for people.”

But this year, the Navy got serious about fitness.

“Three or four years ago, two weeks before the test you’d see everybody coming with their sweats to work out,” said Ken Mitchell, spokesman for North Island Naval Air Station in San Diego. “Now you see them doing it every day.”

The tighter requirements will not only force Navy men and women to get more fit, they will also help the Navy meet its mandate to trim its worldwide forces by 5.1%, or 27,000 people, during the next two years, officials said.

At Point Mugu, officials have dismissed one male and one female sailor this year for failing to get in shape after repeated warnings about their flabby condition.

Another 108 personnel at Point Mugu, including Joanne Delano, were ordered to enroll in an exercise program after scoring too low on their most recent fitness tests.

“I didn’t put 13 years in here to get kicked out of the Navy for being overweight,” said Delano, a petty officer 2nd class and aircraft mechanic. “That’s not how I want to get out of the Navy.”

Delano failed the fitness test in January and was informed that she had 10 months to get in shape or her Navy career was finished.

Like many others, Delano had managed to perform the required sit-ups, pushups and running but failed to meet the required fat-to-muscle ratio.

The Navy determines body fat on women by measuring their waist, neck and hips, and on men by measuring their waist and neck, and charting these numbers against people’s height on tables drawn up by exercise specialists.

Delano had 38% body fat, considerably higher than the maximum 30% the Navy allows for women. Men can have no more than 22% body fat.

Lt. Terrie Lohmeyer, the physical fitness director at Point Mugu, recalled that Delano “was very, very bitter at the beginning. Her progress has been tremendous.”

Five mornings a week, Delano swims laps and works out at the base gym, running on the treadmill and riding the stationary bicycles.

In the past six months, she has reduced her body fat to 31%. Assuming she loses that crucial 1% by her October deadline, Delano said she does not plan to let herself get out of shape again.

“I don’t want to get myself back in a situation where my job’s at risk,” she said.

Jacobs said Navy personnel should expect to meet high standards of physical fitness. “It is the military,” he said. “We aren’t supposed to be the same as the civilians.”

But North Island officials point out that Navy personnel do not have to be in top physical shape to pass the exercise component of the fitness test.

The test varies for men and women and for different ages. Men in their 20s have almost 14 minutes to run 1 1/2 miles and two minutes to do 40 sit-ups. Women at that age get nearly 17 minutes to complete the run and have to do 33 sit-ups in the allotted two minutes.

“The requirements aren’t that stringent,” said Chief Petty Officer Grant Kmetz, who runs the exercise program at San Diego’s North Island. “If you put at least a little bit of effort into it, you’re going to make it.”

Nevertheless, Navy personnel at sea may have a tougher time keeping fit than their fellow sailors on land.

Cmdr. William Spence, executive officer of the Mobile, home ported in Long Beach, said 37 of the 344 men aboard failed the fitness test one month ago.

All 37 are engaged in a rigorous daily exercise program, which includes stretching, aerobic workouts and running when in port, he said.

But Spence said the exercise routine becomes more difficult to maintain when the ship is at sea, as it is for nine months every year.

“It’s tough,” he said. “You have a much tighter confined area.”

Now, with the stricter standards and the heightened threat of discharge, Spence said he has seen a change in attitude about fitness.

It used to be that about 70% of the men who failed their fitness tests would attend the daily exercise sessions, he said. “Now we’re probably seeing 90%.”

Of course, Spence added, the men who fail the biannual fitness tests have a choice about whether or not to join in the exercises.

But if they do not make the right choice, he said, “then they’re going to be out of the service.”