Funny thing; I had thought that, since my characters are technically Army Reserves (and a lot of what they experience could apply to the National Guard as well) I would end up with a lot of civilian comics interspersed by a few Army comics– maybe a 60/40 mix or so. But I’ve been coming up with mostly military themed comics lately and only a few civilian comics, and the military comics seem to generate more favorable responses.

But what can I say? The Army is hilarious. They don’t intend to be hilarious, but ironically the more they try to deny how silly they are, the more hilarious it becomes. At least to me, that is. I go to Weekend Drill and I end up with material to last me for weeks on end, all for two days of work. Which they PAY me for! So even if I accomplished little of note with my direct, hands-on training, I still have fodder for comics.

Anyhow, we are approaching our annual PT (Physical Training) test, in which we must perform a certain number of push-ups, sit-ups, and a 2-mile run in a certain length of time. It is curved based on age and gender, and is typically topped off with a weigh-in and height measurement. We have to meet a certain proportion of height to our weight ratio, or we are measured for body fat content and potentially deemed “overweight” and we can’t have any favorable actions given to us (promotions, schools, etc) until we are withing height/weight compliance. The height/weight/body fat measurements are notoriously inaccurate but it is all the Army has to go by, and they go full speed ahead with it.

Of course it happens around the same time as Final Exams, and with a high proportion of Reserve & Guard troops that are students, and the stress eating & beer that go with study time, well… yeah. And with their 20-something metabolisms, they still have it easy.