The Department of Defense is getting the funds it needs to rebuild a depleted military. Unfortunately, while replacing tools can be done with relative ease, rebuilding troop strength may prove significantly more difficult.
The U.S. military is an all-volunteer force. To work, it depends on enough young Americans being willing and able to serve. A bustling economy already hinders the number of young men and women who previously, with few other job prospects, might have enlisted. That’s an issue that can be somewhat addressed with additional enlistment bonuses and better benefits.
But the biggest problem with finding enough new recruits is far more difficult to address. According to a new report from the Heritage Foundation, 71 percent of Americans between 17 and 24 are ineligible for military service. According to 2017 Department of Defense data, these young Americans can’t join the military because they didn’t graduate from high school, they have criminal records, or they are physically unfit. The largest reason by far is obesity. More than 27 percent of America’s young adults are simply too fat to fight.
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Retired Army Lt. Gen. Tom Spoehr, a co-author of the Heritage report, says more young Americans would be willing to serve if the military lowered its standards, and upped its weight limits. But, he warns that inferior troops can be just as harmful to national security as an understaffed service.
Recent news stories suggest that the lack of physically fit youth may already be affecting military readiness. The Marine Corps recently announced it is lowering combat endurance test standards in its fabled Infantry Officer Course. The Corps has quietly made several modifications to the standards of the IOC over the past two years to boost graduation rates. The Navy has waived mandatory separation requirements for sailors who have repeatedly failed to meet weight standards. And, in 2017, to meet recruitment quotas, the Army issued more than 8,000 waivers for physical and mental health issues. All of which raises worrisome questions about the state of our military’s combat readiness.
The commander of the Army’s Initial Training Command is concerned. Maj. Gen. Malcolm Frost recently stated that the “next existential threat we have ... is the inability to man our military.”
Obesity has always posed a threat at the individual level. It now poses a hazard to the defense of the nation as well. A cultural shift toward healthier living — better diet, more activity, less screen time (especially for children) — is long overdue. Nikita Khrushchev’s promise that the Soviets would bury America never came to pass. But he might be surprised today to learn that Americans are slowly burying themselves — with a knife and fork.
