It's military standards and boot camp. It has literally nothing to do with perception. Look at drill for a fraction of a second while standing at attention and he will berate you endlessly for trying to suck him off with your eyes. Your bootlace is dragging because you're dumb. You're tired because you're weak. And you are the fattest motherfucker in this universe because you stood in front of the cake in the chow line for too long. It's not about perception. It's just basic. Even in active duty today, he would still be considered overweight, and even if he passed the PT test it wouldn't protect him from getting chaptered out for fitness.

6' 5", 200#, according to the Army, I was overweight by 15 lbs. I ran A group most mornings in PT (fastest, farthest runners), ran low 6 min miles, maxed situps and still had to wait 40 seconds for the test to end. Pushups were always low but fuck off, soy alto. I started lifting, gained 50 lbs, and my neck grew to 19"+ and all of the sudden I was "fit", even though I couldn't run A group anymore, couldn't break 7 min miles, and barely finished the situps in time. No improvement on pushups so don't stop fucking off. It's just military standards. It has literally nothing to do with perception. And people were fat before the 80s, JTFC did I just have to say that? Sure, there are more today, but it's not like Pvt Pyle was broadly considered obese by civilians at the time. The people ITT... 🙄