Navy Bases Fighting Their Own Battle of the Bulge : Military: Crews at Point Mugu and Port Hueneme face new, stricter fitness standards. Some must confront an ultimatum to get in shape or get out.

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

Beginning this year, the Navy has tightened 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 at Point Mugu, Port Hueneme and beyond now 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 just 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. “It’s been so easy for people.”

But this year, the Navy got serious about fitness.

The tighter requirements will not only force Navy men and women to get 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.

Point Mugu officials, for instance, have already dismissed one man and one woman sailor for failing to get in shape after repeated warnings about their flabby conditions.

Another 108 people, including Joanne Delano, were ordered to enroll in an exercise program after scoring too low on their most recent fitness test.

“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 at Point Mugu. “That’s not how I want to get out of the Navy.”

For Delano the failure on the January test came at a bad time because she was up for re-enlistment. She was informed she had 10 months to get in shape or her Naval career was finished.

Like many others, Delano had managed to perform the required sit-ups, push-ups 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 just their waist and neck--then charting those numbers against the people’s height on tables drawn up by exercise specialists.

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

Although she had missed the mark on the fat-to-muscle test a few years before, at that time she had to slim down only to 35% body fat to avoid punitive action. Now, the Navy insists on the stricter 30% fat-to-muscle ratio.

Her reaction, she said, began with tears, evolved into anger and then, finally, she began exercising.

Lt. Terrie Lohmeyer, who directs the physical fitness testing program for Point Mugu, recalls 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 six months, she has reduced her body fat to 31%, just 1% above the maximum allowed.

Assuming she loses that crucial 1% by her October deadline, Delano said she doesn’t 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.

Now, Delano said, she believes Point Mugu officials were stern with her partly to prove to others on base that the Navy is getting tough about fitness. “I was made an example,” she said. “But that’s OK.”

At the same time that Delano got her ultimatum, fellow sailor Michael Tolson got a warning that he also had to shape up.

Tolson, a 29-year-old petty officer 3rd class who works as an aircraft mechanic, said eating too much fast food and getting too little exercise had caused him to gain 40 pounds over the past two years.

During his physical fitness test in January, the 6-foot, 1-inch Tolson’s measurements showed that he had 23% body fat, 1% over what was allowed.

Unlike Delano, Tolson was not up for re-enlistment at the time he failed to meet the standards for fat-to-muscle ratios. But he said he knew that if he didn’t slim down, he would have less of a chance to be promoted in the future.

“I had to keep my body fat down to get a higher evaluation” from my superiors, he said.

By working out in the base gym, lifting weights and playing basketball, Tolson is already down to 22% body fat.

But Jacobs said he is encouraging Tolson and all the other men and women in the base exercise program to slim down beyond the minimum levels required.

Navy men and women shouldn’t be surprised to have to conform to high standards of physical fitness, Jacobs said.

“It is the military,” he said. “We aren’t supposed to be the same as the civilians on the outside.”