“Awright, boys, today we’re bombing the Golden Arches, tomorrow we’re hitting the Home of the Whopper, the Navy’s sending a SEAL team to take out the Xbox, Army Rangers are going to secure the schools and the Marines will invade the credit bureaus.”
The newest enemy for America’s military isn’t a dictator or a terrorist. It’s a lifestyle that is rendering as much as 75% of the country’s young people unfit for military service, according to a report title, “Ready, Willing and Unable to Serve.”
Questions are being raised about the high number – Seventy-five percent are unfit? – but the core of the report’s data shows problems facing recruiters. A combination of obesity, sedentary lifestyles, high-school dropout rates, police records and even bad credit reports reduce the pool of candidates who otherwise want to “be all they can be” via the military.
Uncle Sam wants you – to put down that Big Mac, turn off that Xbox and use your credit wisely.
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Brian King said:
I’ve noticed that between the electric golf carts, electric scooters, and other non-human powered machinery kids of today have – it doesn’t surprise me that as they grow up they might be lacking in physical skills.
At some point the military may just have to lower the bar. Sadly I don’t see our society suddenly becoming more fit and healthy.
November 16th, 2009 at 11:54 am
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November 16th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Joe said:
The military has already been lowering the bar for a few years. Now if you can’t complete the fitness standards in basic, they have remedial fitness training. Age requirements have been expanded.
November 16th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Robert Ireland - RVN 67-69 said:
Run the fat off them in basic training. Let the Drill Instructor yell the attention into them. Never let them sit on their ass as long as they are being trained or not, at least, until they have demonstrated they are able to perform and not fall asleep during training. Assign a portion of their military pay to their debt holders and unless their crimes are a serious felony stick them in the line where they will have to perform or get killed (by the enemy or fragged by those they are endangering). The majority will shape up because dying isn’t an option. those that don’t, place in a body bag, zip it up and move on to those that got with the program.
November 22nd, 2009 at 11:30 pm