Posted on 12/13/2012 8:53:52 PM PST by Mozilla
Obesity has become the leading cause of new recruits being rejected from the US Army as they struggle to meet fitness standards.
And military officials have warned expanding waistlines in the warrior corps are causing a national security concern as the Army is being forced to dismiss a rising number of overweight soldiers.
During the first 10 months of this year, the Army, under pressure to cut the number of troops, kicked out 1,625 soldiers for being out of shape - around 15 times the number discharged for that reason in 2007.
Between 1998 and 2010, the number of active-duty military personnel deemed overweight or obese more than tripled, reported the Washington Post.
In 2010, 86,186 troops - 5.3 percent of the force - were diagnosed as overweight or obese, according to the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center.
-snip-
Under a mandate to reduce the active-duty force from 570,000 to 490,000 by 2017, the Army has instructed commanders to make few exceptions in terms of fitness and weed out substandard troops.
This was a strategy employed during the period after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The following year the Army discharged more than 3,000 soldiers for being overweight, the highest since 1984.
But as the Iraq and Afghanistan wars strained the military, the Army accepted recruits who would not normally be eligible. This included the obese.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Blame it on poverty. we should probably cut back on the food stamps.
Do you think they buy “food” with food stamps?
Nope. Many are selling them for cash at half price.
What ever happened to 5-BX? I’ve still got my book!
All fat and no battle.
Fat is a problem, sure, but this is a very old technique for thinning out the troops cuz of BUDGET CUTS.
The other popular one is TATTOOS.
If they wanna pay fewer people, they just get pickier about tats and fat, and then they can deny that they’re RIF’ing.
Another thing they do is do away with “moral waivers” (taking people with minor offenses).
Yeah they have orders to reduce the force and they are targeting certain types of people. But it seems a lot of applicants do not quality to join.
Training at said exercises on a frequent basis would result in absolutely no occurrence of obesity. Which leaves me to ask WTH are they doing to our military?
I was 5’ 7 1/2” and 210 lb when drafted into the Army at age 23 in 1961. The examining doc didn’t blink at my weight. How fat do you have to be to be rejected? I was 178 after basic training, could do 60 pushups, and didn’t look fat.
I joined the Navy in 1969. I was 5’ 11” and 105 lbs.
Came out of boot camp 148 lbs. Could still wear the same pants, but my coats and shirts didn’t fit anymore.
How do these fatasses get in there in the first place?
Never mind, I know the answer.
Not everyone in the Army is an Infantry Soldier.
I think some of these kids have been obese all their lives and have already started to develop health problems than normally older people would get. Diabetes is one.
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