Obesity Threatening National Security

[sid]

It seems really serious. Check it out:

https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2018/10/10/americas-obesity-is-threatening-national-security-according-to-this-study/

[dogtag]

I reckon it's the fatties that are causing sinkholes.

[Vern Humphrey]

There is a lady here who always takes an electric cart to shop at Wal Mart. When she sits down, the cart disappears!

[High Plaines Doug r]

I just finished re-reading "All But Thee and ME" Published in 1946 by Brig Gen E D Cooke regarding a study he was assigned by General Staff in the Spring of 1943 to report on why the War Dept, by that time, was discharging nearly as many men and women for being unfit as were being inducted.

The problem wasn't obesity; the conclusion was that only about 30% of the available draftees were physically or mentally (or morally) fit to serve and many of these only in service or support roles.

[bdm]

I see a lot of people using electric carts that don't need them they are just plain lazy

[Vern Humphrey]

This gal does a service -- her buttocks sweep the floor as she drives around the store.

[togor]

I just finished re-reading "All But Thee and ME" Published in 1946 by Brig Gen E D Cooke regarding a study he was assigned by General Staff in the Spring of 1943 to report on why the War Dept, by that time, was discharging nearly as many men and women for being unfit as were being inducted.

The problem wasn't obesity; the conclusion was that only about 30% of the available draftees were physically or mentally (or morally) fit to serve and many of these only in service or support roles.

If you're 18 years old in 1942 then you were 5 years old in 1929 when the stock market crashed and the Great Depression started. We didn't have mass starvation in this country, but a lot of kids didn't get a full ration during their growing years. As it happens the US did better with this once Roosevelt got in. Another country that made it a point to feed their youth was Germany, and there the government had the specific aim of raising an army that (they hoped) would be physically superior to their adversaries.

In his tome on the Third Reich, William L. Shirer writes of going forward into France with other neutral correspondents during the 1940 French campaign. At one point a line of British POWs passes a line of advancing German infantry. The British were clearly dejected and the Germans clearly showing the strain of the campaign, but beyond that he noticed that the Germans just appeared stronger and more fit than the British. Of course the Nazis had them marching around the countryside for the previous seven years getting ready for this hour, while the British largely neglected their youth through the 30's.

Count me among those who think we have too many people in this country who let themselves go. Not just the office workers anymore. Someone running a Bobcat or in the cab of an 18-wheeler is as likely as not these days to be packing an extra 50lbs if not more.

[blackhawknj]

"More PT, Drill Sergeant !" Cut out the starchy foods, a daily dose of PT, that will solve that problem. PT Profile? "PT or E-3"
How many of those rejected in 1943 were drafted in 1944 ? I have always liked the scene in The Execution of Private Slovik where the DI tells them:
"You guys are the bottom of the barrel. But the heat's on, Uncle Sam needs warm bodies, and now the bottom of the barrel is starting to look might good."

[Vern Humphrey]

The problem in WWII was that the government had not data on the physical condition of the population. The Army specified what they wanted, and all the men meeting that criteria were drafted. But it wasn't enough. So standards were lowered, and still not enough. So standards were lowered farther, and so on and so on.

If we have to go back to the draft again, we have a much better picture of the population, and can set standards that will allow us to fill the ranks without scraping the bottom of the barrel.

[togor]

If the suggestion is that guys can steer clear of selective service by getting fat or sickly frail, that seems off. Academic point, anyways, as the automated, professional military would find conscripts about as useful for the current mission as horse cavalry. Just more mouths to feed. Robots on the other hand have no indecision from fear of death.

[barretcreek]

Gen'l Mattis gave a speech at VMI recently and quoted the "71% of 17-24yr old Americans are not fit to serve". Missionreadiness.org has a link. Thank the ejukashun bureaucracy.

[blackhawknj]

William F. Buckley said that when he was inducted into the Army in South Carolina in 1943 . a sergeant came into the room and said:
"Everyone who cannot read or write raise your right hand !"
A third of them did so. Buckley said they soon learned.
The Union Army did a good job of making soldiers out of illiterate field hands.
IMHO the real problem to day is drug use.