Posted on 11/04/2009 4:41:22 PM PST by Route797
More than one-third of Americans ages 17-24 are unqualified for military service because of physical and medical issues, U.S. military officials said.
Curt Gilroy, the Pentagon's director of accessions, said the United States has "an obesity crisis."
"There's no question about it," Gilroy told the Navy Times. "Kids are just not able to do push-ups, and they can't do pull-ups. And they can't run."
The Pentagon figures -- 35 percent of the roughly 31.2 million Americans ages 17-24 are ineligible for military service -- are drawn from data from the Centers for Disease Control. In a study scheduled to be released Thursday in Washington, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and a group of retired military officers say young Americans' lack of overall fitness for military duty is a national security threat, the Navy Times reported.
The report, drawing on Pentagon data, says 75 percent of the nation's 17- to 24-year-olds are ineligible for service for a variety of reasons, including:
-- 35 percent ineligible for medical/physical problems.
-- 18 percent ineligible for illegal drug use.
-- 9 percent ineligible for mental problems.
-- 18 percent have too many dependents.
-- 5 percent have a criminal record.
Hey Sandrat you hear about this
This is with gender norming right, or else it would be much higher.
I called this YEARS ago when they took away mandatory tough and rigerous PT from our public schools. There was a call to reinvent our PT and PE programs in schools across the nation by that weird physical trainer that seems very gay. I can’t remember his name, but anyway he even said back during the Clinton years that if there ever was a draft it would be hard to draft our kids because they are so obese. It is truly pathetic and is a reflection on our society.
My daughter says the kids coming out of basic training have been PC’d to death and have to go to ‘stress counseling’ AFTER being assigned to a post. They a pass (time out) to stop training if they get ‘overwhelmed’. “Hey terrorist, I need a break.” The older soldiers don’t want anything to do with them. Our military is being compromised and we don’t even know it. The quality of recruits have diminished. Drill sergeants can’t even swear at them anymore.
How does this compares with the 4F rate for previous wars? A couple of other thoughts:
— There is no reason the fat ones can’t be whipped into shape. Their basic training might take a few months longer.
— Some of these rejections are arbitrary too. In a pinch, we could take kids with flamboyant tatoos and those who test positive for marijuana.
That means taking in people that are not inclined to be fit, then spending a fortune in wasted money repeating their training cycles and then losing most of them to fatness again after basic when their natural habits return them back to their normal weight.
Of course, Singapore drafts them.
The 4F rate in World War II was 30 to 40%.
Yup.. and not surprised.
This really amazing. In addition to 35% being fat, 9% with mental problems?, 18% with too many dependents?? What the heck is with that? How does all of this break down by
family economics and races?
Of course, this still leaves about 20M eligible. I believe that in WWII in size of the US military was about 8M.
And just what is one of the classes pulled during school district budget crunches? PE of course.
I went into basic training way over weight and in a matter of 6 weeks, I had lost 55 pounds and turned what was left into muscle. (Some still table type)
Urban Lifestyle and video games. It’s the way it is. Drill Seargents need to push the pansies harder, that’s all.
So, about the same. Again, that still leaves 20M eligible in that single group. You can tap the older groups as well.
Kids today have good thumb action, though. And most of them can respond with a “hello” before the cell phone’s second ring.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.