75 Percent of Young Americans Are Unfit for Military Duty

[DainBramaged]

The latest Army statistics show a stunning 75 percent of military-age youth are ineligible to join the military because they are overweight, can't pass entrance exams, have dropped out of high school or had run-ins with the law.

So many young people between the prime recruiting ages of 17 and 24 cannot meet minimum standards that a group of retired military leaders is calling for more investment in early childhood education to combat the insidious effects of junk food and inadequate education.

"We've never had this problem of young people being obese like we have today," said Gen. John Shalikashvili, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

He calls the rising number of youth unfit for duty a matter of national security. "We should be concerned about how this will impact this overstretched Army and its ability to recruit."

Shalikashvili is among dozens of retired generals, admirals and civilian Pentagon officials who have banded together as Mission Readiness: Military Leaders for Kids. The group, which includes former NATO commander and presidential candidate Wesley Clark, will appear with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at the National Press Club on Thursday to urge immediate action to reduce dropout rates and improve the physical and moral fitness of the nation's youth.

They will cite research that shows quality early childhood education raises graduation rates by up to 44 percent and reduces the odds of being arrested for a violent crime by age 18.

Douglas Smith of the U.S. Army Recruiting Command said 2008 data shows about three in 10 youths have an initial barrier to enlistment.

http://www.sphere.com/2009/11/03/70-percent-of-young-am...

[BrklynLiberal]

1. The repuke attack on this country has done more harm than any foreign terrorist could.

They have destroyed public education and their corporate masters have made sure that anything that is healthy or nutritious has been contaminated with HFCS, fats, salt. The media has been complicit by its advertising of those things.

There is no more phys ed in schools, no art, no music, no headstart, early childhood enrichment. Charter schools, formerly religious schools, eating up our tax money and then saying there is no money for public education. These guys have been moving into the school boards for decades.
The repukes and rwingers had as a goal to create a population of ignorant zombies. They are well on their way. In fact they may have succeeded too well. The population they have created cannot even make good soldiers..which was really what they were created for...

[DainBramaged]

2. Wonderful points, Thanks for clarification

but the people who NEED to read this one lonely thread the most will never see it, and our children will continue down the road of premature illness and even death.

[Deja Q]

15. The school 2 blocks from where I live has recess every day - the little snots are running everywhere

I've seen groups of kids running (given the dress uniforms it was from a private school) so phy ed still exists...

If there's no phys ed, how come schools haven't sold the large outdoor track and baseball fields to some developer? Like a junk food plant; make the junk food and not even bother with a truck to ship it to the school just to pork up all our kids... indeed, if there was a conspiracy, how come the most popular made and female names aren't "Hansel" and "Gretel"?

I will say this: Instructors say they're there to teach; the students can do what they want. (so much for being an authority figure; if some jackass is whispering in the back everyone who's trying to pay attention to the $3000 courses they're taking might be missing out for a basic civility issue that shouldn't be an issue in this purportedly more "sophisticated" society nowadays... )

Or the high school ass who's doing 30 in a 65MPH zone (minimum: 40) and babbling on his cell phones - somebody hit them and collect a lot of insurance money over the ass's sheer pigheadedness... what the bleep IS wrong with people nowadays... We have technological devices but nobody tells the kids how to use them right... anybody imposing a law saying to use cell phones while driving will lead to jail time will be met with whines of "Fascism!" (I call "bull" on that - enough studies have been aired on television to readily prove how frigging dumb the obvious is so if people can't govern themselves...)

[harun]

3. Pukes will just push for more mercenaries.

[DainBramaged]

4. yup, and what about robots and smart weapons

got to offset the North korean and Chinese millions......

[harun]

7. Good point. The army of tomorrow: robots, high paid mercenaries from at home

and the poor low pay contract fighters from third world countries.

[ThomWV]

5. Think like a Recruiter. There's only one problem.

Think like a Recruiter. You can run the fat off the overweight ones, you can give the stupid ones just enough training to point a rifle, but the real problem is with the lawbreakers. An army can not operate with soldiers who will not obey orders. Lawlessness don't work.

[TK421]

6. That's why they would never have taken me...I've always hated authority

or people yelling in my face, for that matter

[KamaAina]

8. Go to McDonald's, not Afghanistan!

Better a heart attack at 50 than an IED at 25!

(mild )

[DainBramaged]

13. That's a very good point, why should these kids die for Corporate wars?

[izquierdista]

9. I can't see why overweight would be a problem

Isn't that just perfect for a bully country? Do what we say, or we'll send over a bunch of our fat kids over there and they will sit on your heads until you say "uncle".

[Deja Q]

11. Why not enlist them; boot camp thinning the herd (so to speak)

[ThomWV]

14. Back in the old days they used to draft lots of fat guys, they didn't stay fat long.

[Deja Q]

17. Thx for the info - I did not know that...

That should make a comeback, unfortunately... it'll save them when they're older, assuming there's a society that wants to save itself. (which might be why we all voted for Obama and listened to Michelle tear up on how proud she was at the time...)

[ThomWV]

19. This may sound like an odd thing to say, but Basic Training wasn't a bad experience

There was the indoctrination of course, and I'm not talking about that, but the physical training part of it was a pretty good thing in my opinion. I was a skinny kid, underweight by any standard, but there were plenty of young guys who were in the batch that I went through basic with (1966) who were considerably overweight. The Drill Sergeants created a special sort of hell for them and the pounds just melted off. I gained weight myself but one thing I can say with some certainty, the healthiest day of my life was the day I graduated from Basic Training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. My god, they ran you everywhere - and when they weren't running you somewhere they had you out running just to make sure you still could. If you weren't running you were crawling as fast as you could or doing pushups like some sort of jack-in-the-box; oh, and they gave you essentially no time to eat. Didn't matter much how you went in, nobody came out of it fat.

[Thothmes]

28. You mean when LBJ was the President.

[BrklynLiberal]

21. I beliee it is not just being overweight that is the problem.

It is Type-2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and many other problems that used to strike men in their middle years.
I guess if all these guys joined the Military, that would solve the problem of govt run health care for a percentage of the population.
They would all be treated in VA hospitals.

[Deja Q]

10. What's worth defending? Corporations are offshoring everything...

Maybe the kids are smart and have been observant of their ambient environment all along... bit of a shame, rather... Britney Spears is still deemed a hot property for some inane reason (and I don't mean 'crabs', either... and, yes, I've listened to what people think is "music" coming out of her studio. I'll argue that instantly enough... she's not even avant garde, Jefferson Airplane did the threesome song 41 years ago (and with infinitely more taste and something approaching real musical style too, might I add...))

[TCJ70]

12. "Overstretched Military", eh?

Tell that to the current administration. Maybe it'll prompt them to start wrapping up Iraq and Afghanistan.

[Nay]

16. So, WTF? If the military is so hard up for recruits, why can't it take

on a bit more of the duty of turning the fat kids into fit kids and the ones who need to get a GED -- put 'em in GED school and work them day and night until they know enough to pass. How hard is that? Seems like the military would be the perfect place for a lot of these kids to get the GED and shed the fat.

Especially since the military is part of the conservative movement that destroyed the public schools, stopped phys ed, and allowed advertisers and food corps ruin the food supply in search of more profits.

[TK421]

18. Think of John Candy in "Stripes"....he did pretty well, don't you think?

[sendero]

20. 95% of our military adventures..

... are unworthy of any American.

[southernyankeebelle]

22. There was a time way way back that it didn't matter what a person weighed.

They did their jobs and if they were in combat they sure lost the weight. I know at least 2 of my relatives did. Believe me they hound soldiers to death. I remember a female captain who was in the reserves from Iowa. She was a little hefty but fit. She was a farm gal. If you ever been on a farm you know they work very physically hard. She was solid. The who was tall and thin didn't like fat people. She came voluntarily to our post to do her 2 weeks. It was 2 weeks of hell. That poor captain cried her eyes out.

[glinda]

23. my stepson just left for Iraq and he can't see very well

[DainBramaged]

27. My prayers for you and him, may he return home safely to you

[Arkana]

24. Yo. *points to self*

If those guys weren't the troops, I would be the troops--AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD I WOULD BE THE WORST TROOPS.

[malaise]

25. Give them more sodas

and fast food. Let the market decide.

[forum slut]

26. most anything short of a felony charge can be waivered now

and If push ever came to shove, standards would be changed to accommodate anyone and everyone. I personally saw overweight soldiers lose upwards of 60 lbs during basic training and soldiers who couldn't run 2 miles without walking were running 5 miles in 40 minutes by the end of basic.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

29. Wish I could call this a bad thing

but maybe if they can't put together an army they'll stop waging wars.

[Brooklyns_Finest]

30. Diet Trays

In MCRD Paris Island, the over weight recruits were called diet tray recruits. The drill instructors had them wear skivvy shirts that had a D on it, which was a sign for the mess hall guys to give those recruit less food. It was kind of humiliating if you ask me, but all the heavy guys did lose the weight. I was one of those tall lanky guys who gained 15 lbs in boot camp. The problem I see is that we have some REALLY fat kids, where 3 months of boot camp would not be long enough for them to get in shape.

[DainBramaged]

31. Another issue, underlying health issues from being overweight

diabetes, joint problems, cardiac problems, and on and on, even in our youth. I see how the Military wouldn't want to accept that responsibility.

[Quantess]

32. I'm not surprised. People in their teens and 20s are such creampuffs nowadays.

It's mostly because of oversized portions of crappy food, and little incentive to be physically active. At this rate, just think how obese everyone will be in another 20 years.

(edit to say teens and 20s)

[SoCalDem]

33. A few too many SuperMegaDoubleMax Gulps

and a few too many Jumbo 4lb bacon/cheeseburgers..whodathunkit

[DainBramaged]

34. Video (games) killed the Army recruit, Video (games) killed the Army recruit

In their minds and in their guts, you can't run far you can't do push ups.........





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWtHEmVjVw8