Texas National Guard Boots Unfit Troops After Viral Photo Sparks Outrage

The days of woke, soft-bodied military leadership may finally be numbered.

After a now-viral photo showed several overweight Texas National Guard troops arriving in Illinois, the Texas Military Department acted swiftly quietly sending home those who failed to meet basic fitness standards. The move comes amid a renewed push from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to clean up the ranks and restore the military to fighting shape.

“In less than 24 hours, Texas National Guardsmen mobilized for the Federal Protection Mission,” the department explained, acknowledging that the rapid deployment allowed unfit personnel to slip through initial screening. Once identified, however, a “small group” of troops was removed and replaced with fit service members.

That image, published by the Associated Press, was met with ridicule and disbelief across social media platforms:

• One user joked: “Meal Team 6 reporting for duty.”

• Another added: “Guess they missed @PeteHegseth’s memo about weight.”

• Memes mocking the appearance of troops spread rapidly, underscoring a deeper frustration with falling military standards.

And Hegseth noticed.

“Standards are back at The [Department of War],” he posted proudly on social media. Since taking charge, Hegseth has vowed to eliminate the soft, bloated leadership style of the Obama-Biden Pentagon era replacing it with accountability and combat readiness. At a leadership meeting last month, he bluntly declared: “It’s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals.”

The National Guard Bureau backed the Texas Military Department’s action, confirming that “troops are required to meet service-specific height, weight, and physical fitness standards at all times.” Any who fail those standards, even on short notice, are sent home.

This isn’t just about public image. It’s about the hard reality of combat readiness.

The Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) which all National Guard troops are required to pass annually includes six events testing strength, endurance, and agility. It was introduced to modernize fitness assessments, reduce injuries, and align troops with the physical demands of 21st-century warfare. Yet during the Biden years, standards were quietly watered down or inconsistently enforced leading to a nearly 20% failure rate among troops in 2023, according to internal Army data.

The Trump administration is now reversing that decline.

President Trump recently authorized the deployment of 300 National Guard troops to Illinois, part of a broader crackdown on illegal immigration and violent crime in Chicago. Although an activist court temporarily blocked those troops from patrolling the streets, the message is clear this administration intends to use the National Guard for national security not as a social experiment.

With leadership like Hegseth at the helm, the military is returning to what it should have always been lean, lethal, and laser-focused on defending the nation, not promoting diversity quotas or tolerating obesity in uniform.

If America is going to face down threats from China, the cartels, or lawless city streets, our troops need to be more “fit to fight” than “fit for ridicule.”

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