Fresh off a weekend of July 4 festivities (and a little over-indulgence at the backyard barbecues) comes this news: America’s troops need to shape up before they ship out.
It sounds like a joke, but with enlistments declining (in spite of rising patriotism), it’s not funny to military brass at all. Nearly 20 percent of young men who would otherwise be eligible for military service are too fat to enlist. Among women, a whopping 40 percent are packing too many pounds. While boot camp is a well-known way to lose weight, even a drill instructor can only do so much.
Today’s “army of one” is more like an army of one and a half, carrying 37 pounds more than the typical Civil War soldier. It’s turning into a serious problem for the military, as it works to build bodies and minds ready for the rigors of the battlefield.
And the army’s weight problem costs us all money, even long after the soldier has left the service, as former soldiers check into VA hospitals with weight-related illnesses.
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According the Associated Press (by way of MSN), today’s Army faces has to worry about waistlines almost as much as terrorists and WMDs.
Today’s “army of one” is more like an army of one and a half, carrying 37 pounds more than the typical Civil War soldier. It’s turning into a serious problem for the military, as it works to build bodies and minds ready for the rigors of the battlefield.
And the army’s weight problem costs us all money, even long after the soldier has left the service, as former soldiers check into VA hospitals with weight-related illnesses.
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