Wondering if i got some bad info, was talking to a guy i know from high school and he is ROTC in the Army, i was telling him my interests in becoming a PJ and he told me don't do it. He claims that there is Selections were basically they can hand pick thoughs who go threw and thoughs who go home, and will do this for personal reasons. He said that they wont take me seriously at all due to the fact that i am short, and they will assume that i will endanger missions, no matter how my performance is.

I think this sounds like total crap but thought i would ask about it anyway

thanks
wil

Well i am not gonna mention any names but one of my cadre were about 5'5 and he was no push over.. and the height requirement for pararescue is 5'0". as for enlisted goes.. as long as you do not quit, pass the evals, the schools in the pipeline and do not get injured there is no stopping you. Do a search on questions you have; you will find the answers. And your buddy is in army ROTC ((COLLEGE?) OR JROTC (HIGH SCHOOL?)) either way why would you listen to him? someone who never experienced it.. did he not make it because he was not "hand chosen" if that is the case he is probably lying and could not hack it and is not man enough to admit it

i dident really trust him in the first place and wanted confirmation on what i was thinking anyway, He is ROTC not JROTC, not that it really matters.

btw im 5'2", but im not concerned about my height, that is unless i would be judged for it instead of my ability's, but im confident that that wont happen.

If it sounds like total crap, it probably smells like and taste like total crap too.

Medical fitness standards for initial enlistment are prescribed by DoD and are applicable for all Services (with the exception of height, weight, and body fat, when applicable, which are Service-specific).

Although no height standard is established for CCT & PJ the man packable loads of minimum essential mission and survival equipment does biomechanically favor an optimal body weight and standing body height male gender body.

Studies have demonstrated the rule of thumb expectation for man packable weight is:

30% of Body Weight optimum for Fighting Load.

45% of Body Weight optimum for Approach March Load.

60% body weight optimum for carriage in the sustained march load.

75% of body weight for carriage in the Existence Load.

BTW, the terms fighting, assault, approach, sustained and existence define how long and far you are expected to carry this weight.

The assault load=carry indefinately in addition to food and water to assault, engage and fight the enemy.

The approach march load=conduct a 20-mile hike during a time frame of eight hours with the reasonable expectation of maintaining 90% combat effectiveness.

The existence load=limited marching from the landing zone into a secured area.

Sustained March Load - that load which may be necessary to accomplish the mission in conditions where approach marches are through terrain impassable to vehicles, or ground/air transport are not available. <--- Thus is what PJs do a lot of. If the helicopter could get to the survivor(s) we would much prefer hoisting the survivors to the express bus home.

Consequently, the 5 foot 5 inch (65 inches) tall team member is working a bit harder than taller team members, when the typical weight of fighting load and other mission essential equipment is generally 50 pounds or more.

Thank for the info guys, im a bit tired so i will re-read Yukon's post in the morning for a better understanding of it. But i think i will be ok with Sustained march loads, I do a bit of hiking in to camp and fish, the place i go to is about 15miles in and i bring almost 70lbs of gear i think it took me alittel over 7hrs last time, idk if that's good or not but that's what it was. I then Fish for a few days then hike back out with about 50lbs of gear.

also i was told that i cant be CCT due to that they have requirements of 5' 4'' not knocking CCT's at all but this is ok with me because its not what i want to do, also this was told to me by my recruiter, or i got the job wrong of what has this 5' 4'' requirement. I have been talking to him almost 3 times a week for the last 5months and its been alot of information so i could just have the job wrong.

I consider my original ? answered at this point but if people want to give more information or their opinions (if its your opinion say it is though please) that is more then welcome
thanks again
Wil

edit: is it TACP that has a req. of 5' 4''? i am finding my self frustrated that i don't remember what he said

It isn't the size of the dog in the fight that matters, its the size of the fight in the dog!
One of the toughest, never saw him complain, get tired or lose it men I've ever known was 5'11" and 135lbs with about 6% body fat and looked like he waas 16 years old. But the cold, the wieght of the load, the general get on your nerves stuff in the field just never seemed to affect him. A friend who finished his final eval at CCT/PJ Selection with TWO hernias (a tough guy in anybody's book) said that my skinny budy-we called him "Boney Toney" was the toughest guy he ever met. And he was just a little guy-135lbs aint big.

Small guy at 5'11? DAMN! I must be a hobbit then at 5'5 hahahaha. But hey, even frodo had a lot of fight in him.

I think he's referring to the over all size of the guy. I mean, when i was a senior in high school, I was 5'6, and it took me 3 months to drop to 135 for wrestling. This guy is 5 inches taller than that, and if he's like most the guys i know, built like that, they have trouble staying that heavy.

The point of biomechanical differences resulting from body height and weight compositions is focusing so much on individual capability, most participating in this conversation are completely ignoring number of willing and physically able members of a team that must carry both personal equipment and mission equipment. To a certain degree willingness can overcome a certain degree of physically unable.

Pertinent to this I have found no official height and weight minimum or maximum classification requirement published for PJ, CCT, SOWT or TACP.

However, if anybody bothered to do a little simple math and looked at the current Air Force height weight charts it would have been discovered the recommended max assault load of 48 pounds is at the 160 pounds max weight of 64 inches (5 foot, 4inches) tall person. Now the question being asked is unless this person is a body builder or weight lifter what would exactly would a person’s body fat percentage and fitness most likely be at this maximum weight? Regardless atleast I’m showing how wherever a height standard that is suggested to exist gets arrived at.

Team capability must be counted by the number of willing and physically able soldiers. Willing can certainly overcome to a certain degree of physically unable and all I was saying this means the shorter person will be working harder to keep up with taller team members carrying the same weight.

To put it another way, think of horse racing which uses handicap of weight extra to the jockey the horse must carry for the race to equalize the chances of winning for all horses in the race.

Regarding height standards and Army Regulation 40-501. I mentioned it as previous versions of AFI 48-123 did disclose height standards for accessions. It no longer does so. However there is a standard and I finally found AFI reference making the connection.