American Military Recruits Are Getting Too Fat To Fight

When thinking about the United States military, we conjure up images of Rambo and GI Jane, or Maverick and Iceman from Top Gun. The images are of lean, mean fighting machines who are ripped, fit and ready to take on America’s enemies. Movies are one thing but reality paints a different picture.

A recent report from The Heritage Foundation describes trouble ahead for the U.S. military. Based on 2017 Pentagon data, three quarters of young Americans may be too unfit, unhealthy or otherwise unqualified to serve in the military.

Specifically, “71 percent of young Americans between 17 and 24 are ineligible to serve in the United States military.” In other words, “24 million of the 34 million people of that age group cannot join the armed forces — even if they wanted to.”

Physical fitness is not the only barrier for those wanting to join the military. The four main reasons are health problems (32 percent), physical fitness (27 percent), education (25 percent) and criminality in 10 percent.

http://dailycaller.com/2018/03/12/american-military-recruits-too-fat/