Fifteen times more troops were discharged from the US Army this year
due to obesity than five years prior. With scores of recruits unfit to
serve due to the extra pounds, the country’s top brass have deemed it a
national security concern.
The American Army is discharging servicemen in an attempt to cut its
budget, and the first to be given their walking papers are those who
have failed fitness tests because of obesity. During the last 10 months
alone, 1,625 troops were dismissed from the US army due to being
overweight, the Washington Post reported.
Over the last 15 years, the figures of obese people actively serving
more than tripled. Armed Forces Health reported that in 2010, 86,186
servicemen (5.3 per cent of the military) had at least one
obesity-related diagnosis.
In 2010, the highest percentage of overweight troops were women older
than 40 serving in the Air Force. Marines and troops in other branches
under 20 were deemed the most fit.
The alarming trend caused the top brass to review the soldiers’
training programs, prompting them to push commanders to discharge all
those unfit to serve.
“A healthy and fit force is essential to national security. Our
service members must be physically prepared to deploy on a moment’s
notice anywhere on the globe to extremely austere and demanding
conditions,” Commander Leslie Hull-Ryde, a Pentagon spokeswoman, told
the daily.
Soldiers themselves have in fact argued that the fitness test they
have to undergo is too strenuous, with strong, fit servicemen being
unfairly excluded.
Although younger generations are said to live more sedentary lives
while enjoying larger mealtime portions, some servicemen have taken to
the Internet to counter that they became overweight due to injuries, not
sloth.
Blogs
and forums are filling up with soldiers and their relatives who have
criticized the new policy, claiming the troops are being treated as
expendable items.
“My son fought for this country and has a wife and 3 young children,
the youngest a month old and they are now homeless,” wrote one soldier’s
mother, whose son got a knee injury while serving in Iraq and was later
kicked out of the military.
Another user says that his wife was hurt, gained weight because of a
lack of exercise and time to visit the gym, and was eventually dismissed
from the forces. “It truly is a sad state, when there are people
begging to get out of the Army, and they want to throw out someone who
truly wants to serve,” he pointed out.
Obesity has also become the main cause of ineligibility for
recruitment in the US, leading the Pentagon to worry about the impact
the trend will have on its fighting forces.
Retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling said in a 2009 speech that
75 percent of civilians who wanted to join the force were ineligible due
to being overweight.
“Of the 25 percent that could join, what we found was 65 percent
could not pass the [physical training] test on the first day. Young
people joining our service could not run, jump, tumble or roll – the
kind of things you would expect soldiers to do if you’re in combat,” he
pointed out.
It comes two years after former General David Petraeus lifted the ban
on fast food restaurants, such as Taco Bell, Burger King, and Pizza
Hut, on military bases in Afghanistan, saying that the eateries “enforce
military readiness.” In February 2010, his predecessor General Stanley
McChrystal banned 57 fast-food restaurants located on Afghan military
bases.
During the peak of US military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan
this past decade, the Army allowed recruits to sign up who in previous
times would have been considered ineligible, including obese people or
those with criminal records. Following a recent order to reduce the
active-duty force from 570,000 to 490,000 by 2017, Army commanders have
now been tasked with weeding out substandard troops.