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"I don't know why. I'm fat and an expert marksman..."

Being a soldier is a lot more than how well you shoot. In combat, you're not getting into the correct prone position, checking the wind and adjusting the dope on your sights. You also don't get to wear a shooting jacket. It's about being able to rappel and hump miles upon miles with 50 pounds of gear on your back. It's about going on a patrol in extreme heat conditions and not suffering heat stroke because you're out of shape. Young adults being turned down have to be pretty heavy, not just a little overweight. It's a serious problem in this country and parents are abdicating their responsibility by letting junior spend too much time playing games on the computer and not enough out riding bikes and playing.

Kids today do not have the safe environment to be kids in most of us over 50 remeber and grew up in. I don't mean this in EPA sense but rather most of we were safe too leave home in the morning to go out, come in maybe at lunch, then be home for supper then many times back outside. In most places you can't do this anymore. It's a different world out there and a far more dangerous one. By the time I was 16 I could match most adults carrying backpack weight and distance covered. But I could not do things like climb a rope, pushups, etc.

When I was 14 it was safe for me too camp alone on the lake for most the summer. You can't let a kid do that today. The past four decades changed this nation in that respect. The places I camped out alone as a kid I now usually carry too go walk the lake banks. I did have a .22 rifle when caming as a kid though. Yea some of it is TV but we had that. Most of it is kids can not be kids anymore due to dangers brought about from The Great Society.