NEWS

Overweight Texas National Guard Members Sent Home From Chicago Deployment

Red River Radio | By Jeff Ferrell,

Published October 15, 2025 at 6:00 PM CDT

Troops, including from the Texas National Guard, arrived at the U.S. Army Reserve Center in Elwood, Ill., a suburb southwest of Chicago, on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently told top military leaders, "It's tiring to look out at combat formations or really any formation and see fat troops."

When 200 members of the Texas National Guard arrived in the Chicago area last Tuesday, October 7, it did not take long for a set of viral photos, taken by ABC News, to quickly circulate online of overweight troops with Texas uniform patches. As Houston Public Media reports, the Texas Military Department (TMD) confirmed on the military news site Task & Purpose that “a small group” of the 200 National Guard soldiers deployed to Illinois last week had been sent home for not being “in compliance” with its validation process. Since then, the TMD has confirm seven guardsmen in all, were returned home from the 60-day deployment for allegedly violating fitness standards.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks to senior military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico on Sept. 30, in Quantico, Va. In an unprecedented gathering, almost 800 generals, admirals and their senior enlisted leaders have been ordered into one location from around the world on short notice.

This move comes a little more than a week after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth addressed hundreds of senior U.S. military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Quantico, Virginia, on Sept. 30, 2025. During his speech, Hegseth declared, “If the Secretary of War can do regular, hard PT, so can every member of our joint force. Frankly, it’s tiring to look out at combat formations or really any formation and see fat troops.”

Last week, the National Guard issued a statement saying all troops had to meet height, weight, and fitness standards.” According to the Army National Guard:
· You are required to pass the Army Fitness Test (AFT) before you graduate from BCT and during AIT. After AIT, you'll take the ACT once a year, and the results will become part of your records. At your commander's discretion, AFTs may be administered at any time in order to gauge your fitness level. These tests might not be added to your permanent record, but it is essential to always stay prepared for an AFT at any time.

One strong suggestion on this report: It is imperative that each service member has access to some form of health insurance. Service branches should require all personnel to report on the status of their insurance coverage at least annually.

Perhaps equally alarming are the results (See Above) from a study released in April 2025, by the American Security Project (ASP) and reported on by the Military Times. That report concludes that more than two-thirds of National Guard and U.S. Reserve troops are overweight.

A similar report assembled more than a decade earlier (See graphic directly above) also revealed serious concerns about troop readiness based on weight-related illness in the National Guard and reserves, along with rising rates of substance abuse, stress and mental health issues, as well.