News 77% of young Americans too fat, mentally ill, on drugs and more to join military, Pentagon study finds

[shortylickens]

BMI sucks as a metric. I'm overweight according to the standards and I assure you that isn't the case. That said we've got way too many little chonkers running around this country.

Thats fine but he's not talking about BMI. Hes talking about something even more simple which is the simple waistline measurement the DoD invented and its horse shit. Too many big strong men fail when they are clearly fit and able to do the job.

 

[K1052]

Thats fine but he's not talking about BMI. Hes talking about something even more simple which is the simple waistline measurement the DoD invented and its horse shit. Too many big strong men fail when they are clearly fit and able to do the job.

Hmm it looks like they combined that with a modified BMI calc. I guess the good news is that the Army doesn’t consider me to fat too hump a pack and rifle around.

 

[nOOky]

I wonder about the "too fat" thing. Granted, I know from watching my kids' soccer teams that yes kids ARE fat (and these are the ones out playing rec soccer!), but the Army in particular has--or had--some screwy ideas of what "obese" is. My brother had a large frame and had something like 8% body fat and he was labelled "obese" simply on height and weight.

In the Army in the late 80's I was muscular and failed the weight test, so they simply measured and I always passed. I could still run 6 minute miles and max out the PT test. I actually weigh less now in my 50's.

 

[A///]

Don't fall into that trap. Every generation of kids is mostly useless, that's why they're kids. That's also why they're targeted by the military.

What trap? Getting older and shitting on younger people? Bit late for that mate. If recruiters made an effort not to lie to possible recruits the exit opinion of many who found their time to be a major life suck would be better. Although going forward I think we'll see less active deployment of human lives and more reliance on machinery. The latter is expendable, the former is not.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

What trap? Getting older and shitting on younger people? Bit late for that mate. If recruiters made an effort not to lie to possible recruits the exit opinion of many who found their time to be a major life suck would be better. Although going forward I think we'll see less active deployment of human lives and more reliance on machinery. The latter is expendable, the former is not.

No, the trap of assuming the younger generation are layabouts and dumb and don't do anything useful unlike your/our/previous generation xyz.

 

[A///]

No, the trap of assuming the younger generation are layabouts and dumb and don't do anything useful unlike your/our/previous generation xyz.

Every generation has its smart ones that go on to accomplish big things. IDK how old you are but I know older generations shat on mine when I was young. Gen z is more visible than prior generations. It can give a better assessment than prior generations.

 

[nakedfrog]

LOL, "this time it's different, the next generation really is shite!"

 

[shortylickens]

this is all fun but every one of you is ignoring the OP.
77 percent of applicants are unfit to join the military.
Do you honestly believe it was 77 percent all through American history?
It wasnt.
I know that for a fact.

 

[Pohemi]

How many are not qualified because they tested positive for THC? That would be a disqualifier as it remains illegal under federal law.

I don't think everyone in the "drug" category is an addict.

It likely depends on how willing the recruiter is to "help" the new recruits join as well (there's motivation for them to improve their own recruiting numbers, after all.)

I know the Air Force has the highest reqs for joining, so that could have been part of the reason for the extended delay. When my friend joined the Corps in the mid 90s, he told his recruiter that he'd likely be THC positive if tested that day/week. The recruiter delayed his shipping out for 3 weeks and it wasn't a problem.

 

[nakedfrog]

this is all fun but every one of you is ignoring the OP.
77 percent of applicants are unfit to join the military.
Do you honestly believe it was 77 percent all through American history?
It wasnt.
I know that for a fact.

Well, please do enlighten us, what was it previously? Don't forget to account for changes in admission standards. And of course, there are probably more youth being forthcoming about drug use than in the past. There's also been increased awareness of and focus on mental health issues as compared to the past.
There's 44% that are disqualified for multiple reasons, which isn't broken down further. 11% are simply overweight, 8% drug abuse ("includes a history of drug (including pharmaceutical medications, illegal drugs, and other substances of abuse) and alcohol abuse.")--I don't remember ever being asked about my alcohol intake at any point in my admissions process, only illegal drugs.
7% medical/physical health, 4% mental health only, and then a few 1% categories. This is also "77% without waiver", implying that some of these could obtain a waiver.

 

[nakedfrog]

It likely depends on how willing the recruiter is to "help" the new recruits join as well (there's motivation for them to improve their own recruiting numbers, after all.)

I know the Air Force has the highest reqs for joining, so that could have been part of the reason for the extended delay. When my friend joined the Corps in the mid 90s, he told his recruiter that he'd likely be THC positive if tested that day/week. The recruiter delayed his shipping out for 3 weeks and it wasn't a problem.

They did the exact same thing for me. I was also in the office when someone came in and had an assault charge on his record, disqualified for USAF, but he got sent down to the Army recruiter instead.

 

[m8d]

Here are the ten states with the highest rates of obesity.

1. Mississippi - 40.8%
2. West Virginia - 39.7%
3. Arkansas - 37.4%
4. Oklahoma - 36.8%
5. Kentucky - 36.5%
6. Tennessee - 36.5%
7. Alabama - 36.1%
8. Michigan - 36.0%
9. Louisiana - 35.9%
10. South Carolina - 35.4%

 

[Pens1566]

Here are the ten states with the highest rates of obesity.

1. Mississippi - 40.8%
2. West Virginia - 39.7%
3. Arkansas - 37.4%
4. Oklahoma - 36.8%
5. Kentucky - 36.5%
6. Tennessee - 36.5%
7. Alabama - 36.1%
8. Michigan - 36.0%
9. Louisiana - 35.9%
10. South Carolina - 35.4%

So 90% hard core GQP states. Sounds about right.

 

[Pohemi]

I honestly cannot believe Wisconsin isn't on that list. At least people in the northern midwest states have the excuse of needing fat for warmth, lol...but only Michigan made the list. The rest are deep south (and WV, the northern deep south).

 

[shortylickens]

Its got nothing to do with climate. Colorado has long brutal winters but is generally considered the healthiest state.
Its all about culture. the deep south is hot but they have a culture of junk food, picnics, and sitting around doing nothing.

 

[hal2kilo]

Here are the ten states with the highest rates of obesity.

1. Mississippi - 40.8%
2. West Virginia - 39.7%
3. Arkansas - 37.4%
4. Oklahoma - 36.8%
5. Kentucky - 36.5%
6. Tennessee - 36.5%
7. Alabama - 36.1%
8. Michigan - 36.0%
9. Louisiana - 35.9%
10. South Carolina - 35.4%

What, only Michigan is representing the north?

 

[UNCjigga]

Not sure how Ohio didn’t make the cut—fast food capital of America.

 

[hal2kilo]

Not sure how Ohio didn’t make the cut—fast food capital of America.

Illinois if they only said Chicago was Illinois.

 

[Pohemi]

Its got nothing to do with climate. Colorado has long brutal winters but is generally considered the healthiest state.
Its all about culture.

Oh, no doubt. I was mostly joking about the fat insulation. But we also drink the most beer/alcohol per capita of any state, and eat lots of fast food, junk food, etc.

 

[A///]

Oh, no doubt. I was mostly joking about the fat insulation. But we also drink the most beer/alcohol per capita of any state, and eat lots of fast food, junk food, etc.

Your states consumption of homely foods and drink is due to German and Scandinavian history by immigrants. Your neighbor Minnesota isn't too different. Most of their history traces back to Norwegian immigrants.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Its got nothing to do with climate. Colorado has long brutal winters but is generally considered the healthiest state.
Its all about culture. the deep south is hot but they have a culture of junk food, picnics, and sitting around doing nothing.

Erm, climate does make some difference. CO has a really low average humidity throughout the year, the south does not.

As an east coaster, but up north, I can confirm that the east coasts humidity can be brutal….and we don’t really get more than a taste each year that compares with the south.

 

[paco55485]

The whole drug testing issue is about corporate profits. Even when they have legalized marijuana in many states. There are many companies that still will fire you for testing positive THC.

When someone drops a wrench on their foot while on the job, if they have smoked anything in the last 2 months then that person most likely will not report the injury because they know they will be tested when they report the injury. So they will go home and then say they were hurt somewhere else. That way they can be treated at Urgent Care or the hospital but the company doesn't have to report an on-the-job injury and also reduces their insurance liability and premiums.

This saves the company millions of dollars and puts the screws to the employee. It a scary world out there. They make the test difficult to cheat at , so basically the employee that smoked a blunt on his vacation 2 months ago could still lose their job.

I agree completely. EVERYTHING these days seems to be about corporate profits. I have a close friend that climbs telephone polls for a living. He also very rarely consumes an edible or two, maybe a few times per month, tops. I'm not exactly sure about the details, but one day he was working on a pole and somehow lost his footing, suspending him in the air hanging from his arm for an extended period. There was no doubt that he had severely injured his arm but due to fear of losing his job, he "toughed it out" and finished his work day in excruciating pain all because he had consumed THC less than a week before. Maybe he would've passed the test and maybe not but is the juice really worth the squeeze at that point? These things happen every day all across the US. and people just do what they can to finish the day, and then go home with serious injuries. I even had a close call myself about 10 years ago. Thankfully my buddy let me borrow a device that saved my job and I ended up being fine, but things would've been A LOT worse if I hadn't gotten lucky enough to have a good buddy look out for me.

 

[brycejones]

Something is off with the last two posters in this thread.

 

[Stokely]

While I'd never argue that Americans overall don't have a weight problem....

At least when my brother went into the army, their charts on what was "overweight" were wack. He was 6'2" at the time and weighed over 200, solid muscle and could run as well as anyone at his base. Yet he was "overweight".

It was pretty jarring to visit China (about15 years ago) and see how thin everyone was, including the older people. It was like watching an American movie from the 1940s. The exceptions: a fair number of hefty kids, and guess who liked eating at all the American fast places over there instead of the veggie-heavy diet of older generations....

 

[nOOky]

I was very muscular back in my Army days so they would simply measure me with a calipers and I would pass.