Seventy five percent of young people unfit for military service.

[Silver Fox]

Most Americans not Fit to Join

WASHINGTON - Uncle Sam wants YOU, that famous Army recruiting poster says. But does he really? Not if you're a Ritalin-taking, overweight, Generation Y couch potato - or some combination of the above.

As for that fashionable "body art" that the military still calls a tattoo, having one is grounds for rejection, too.

[CincyCop]

An interesting article, Silver Fox. Thanks for posting the link. I can definitely see the obesity and lack of physical fitness issues that were discussed.

[retdetsgt]

They may be rejecting 75% of those that apply, but that's not 75% of American youth. There's a huge gap there. It could be that more of the loser class are trying to get in the Army.

I see kids walking home from high school all the time and not that many look overweight, much less obese. There are a hell of a lot of decent kids out there who have no incentive to go in the military since there is no draft.

[Crazy Train]

They may be rejecting 75% of those that apply, but that's not 75% of American youth. There's a huge gap there. It could be that more of the loser class are trying to get in the Army.

I see kids walking home from high school all the time and not that many look overweight, much less obese. There are a hell of a lot of decent kids out there who have no incentive to go in the military since there is no draft.

Bingo. Was going to post the same thing.

[Silver Fox]

They may be rejecting 75% of those that apply, but that's not 75% of American youth. There's a huge gap there. It could be that more of the loser class are trying to get in the Army.

I see kids walking home from high school all the time and not that many look overweight, much less obese. There are a hell of a lot of decent kids out there who have no incentive to go in the military since there is no draft.

I'm not disputing your word and totally agree, there are a lot of decent kids out there and I would estimate that 75-80 percent would fall into this category. Also, many of these kids, not only those the military are looking at but those in college and the workplace have underlying health problems other than being fat. A lot of contributing factors are taken into consideration here which include the overall populace of our young people today and not only those enlisting in the military.
When looking at the big picture... during the past 20-25 or more years the life style and eating habits of young and old alike have become increasingly more unhealthy. Kids are watching too much TV, getting less sleep, they're skipping meals and when they do eat it's usually a diet consisting of burgers, fries and other fat laden food. About the only green veggie they get is a salad and the piece of lettuce in the burger which has no food value.
I'm still optimistic about our young folks, even after a visit to the local mall.

Personally, I believe it should be mandatory that every kid in the country should serve one year in the military when he reaches 18 or after he finishes college.

[Helloneighbor]

I was thinking about joiing the military

[retdetsgt]

IAlso, many of these kids, not only those the military are looking at but those in college and the workplace have underlying health problems other than being fat. A lot of contributing factors are taken into consideration here which include the overall populace of our young people today and not only those enlisting in the military.

What you say is true, but young people can handle that kind of food and stuff. That really doesn't catch up to you until you're older. When I was 18, I could have lived on nearly anything as long as there was enough of it.

When I enlisted, there were a lot of guys, especially from the cities that weren't in very good physical shape. I was a farm kid so I didn't have much trouble, but in 1964 a good percentage were puking the first time we did any real running. A few washed out, but most of them ended up in pretty good physical shape by the end of basic. And if you remember, just about everyone smoked back then. I bet less than 10% of my platoon didn't.

One factor that was different was there was very little drug use. I don't recall that they even bothered to give us a drug test when I enlisted. But also, a lot of guys were joining that probably wouldn't have had it not been for the draft. Even in the Army, if you enlisted and did well on tests, you were guaranteed a technical school and you could avoid the infantry. If you were drafted, the Army wasn't going to spend a dime more than they had to in training you and that meant front line grunt unless you were Al Gore Jr. Just about every RA in my platoon was headed for school after basic. Every draftee was looking forward only to AIT.

[Helloneighbor]

I was talking to a recruiter and he said that I can and should be good to go for the MOS I was looking for. I think this will be good experiance for me with applying for a job.

[retdetsgt]

I was talking to a recruiter and he said that I can and should be good to go for the MOS I was looking for. I think this will be good experiance for me with applying for a job.

Tell your D.I. about your teacher.... Maybe he'll like you a lot too.....

[Sgt. Slaughter]

Tell your D.I. about your teacher.... Maybe he'll like you a lot too.....

Make sure to bring a picture for the hog board.

[ChevySSP]

We just discussed this topic in a article about a dwindling pool of qualified apps for Police work and if it is acceptable to waive up to Class A offenses.


Personally if its simply a matter of being overweight then the military/police need to just get over it and train them hard. Some people are moderately overweight and can shave it off pretty quick when pressed. Tis one of the reasons why I'm about 15 pounds down in a month.

[CACBAND]

I really have mixed feeling on this, part of me sees the need for a "fit" fighting force, however, I also think some of the standards are unreasonable when applied with a zero tolerance.

The first one is the weight issue, when I was 18 I weighed 198 lbs. Too much for all but the Marine Corps (which I just looked up and its 215 (which by the way is in the “Obesity” range per the CDC). Like ChevySSP said, push/train them hard. I went through a fire academy at 19 and they made us PT, and they didn’t care that some of us were overweight, they expected the same. They got the same and now I’m 140 lbs (just shy of the middle “Normal weight” range per the CDC).

Underlying health issues should not a hard and fast rule to get in. The one the gets (and got) me personally is the asthma rule. I have asthma, yet I’ve not needed an inhaler for years (last time was around 13 years old). I’ve been through a fire academy, I’m red-carded (wildland firefighter), and was accepted to a law enforcement academy. As I type this, I just finished a 2 ½ mile run, without a hitch. All this with mild asthma, yet I got rejected by all 5 branches. The Air Force tried the hardest to get me in, and asked for a waiver but it was turned down. When I did my pulmonary function test for the Air Force, they told me that my asthma was so mild, had I said nothing, they would have had a hard time telling between asthma and just a poor effort on the test.

There’s also the part of me that wonders why I should have to register for the Selective Service system, I tried voluntarily to get in and was shown the door. So what’s the point of registering if I’m not fit to join? (and before anyone asks, I still did register).

[Switchback]

It's not the job of the military to get you into shape. They need to have something mallible enough to shape into a fighting force... morbidly obese just doesn't cut it.

These standards are not about the exceptions to the rule. Generally speaking, they are good gauges of what parameters are required for training one to be an effective fighting force.

[retdetsgt]

Personally if its simply a matter of being overweight then the military/police need to just get over it and train them hard.

The problem is that if you are overweight at 18, the odds are that you will be obese by 40. People tend to gain weight with age as their metabolism slows down. It's pretty rare to find someone who was overweight at 21 and in shape and fit at 35. Bad eating habits rarely get better with age although there are exceptions to everything.

The military must have put the weight standards in place since I was in. I had some real lardasses in basic back then. One guy didn't make it, he was booted out near the end when he never lost weight. A couple of guys did shed a lot of weight. I don't know what happened to them after we transferred out though. Afterwards, we had to maintain a level of fitness, whether they did or not, I don't know.

My dept doesn't have any continuing program for physical fitness so we have some grossly obese people that were pushing the upper limit when they came on. The exception to all that, of course was the body builders. Most of these guys stayed heavy, but still had a low body fat.

[CACBAND]

I agree morbidly obese, does not cut it, however overweight can cut it. The Marine Corps limit for 5’ 10’’ is 215, which is a BMI of 30.8. The obese BMI range starts at 30, so the Marines must feel that can make it happen for not just over weight but obese people.

It is partly about the exceptions to the rule because we have young people who want to serve and should be given the chance. If they want to serve bad enough than they can cut the weight before getting in. However there are things that can’t change (asthma) that many people can function fine with but can’t serve because of it.

My personal feeling, they (the military) has very little room worry about enlistments being down when they turn people away for petty reasons (and I know many of the reasons are legit and I agree with most of them (just not all)).