DoD: 77% of target recruit class aren't fit for service

The U.S. Armed Forces increasingly struggle to meet their recruiting targets for the nation’s volunteer military, an issue in part attributable to the ever shrinking pool of eligible recruits. A colossal 77% of Americans aged 17-24 are unfit for military service, the Pentagon has concluded, a figure which has risen 6% since 2017.

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The DOD report, which was cited in a Feb. 16 congressional hearing, according to the Epoch Times, concluded that obesity was a driving factor in the eligibility decline. Obesity rates have increased consistently for decades and 42.9% of the U.S. adult population qualify as obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 1999, that figure was more than 10 points lower.

[To be fair, is that change an outright increase in obesity, or an artifact of a changing definition of “obese”? I honestly don’t know, but it’s a fair question to ask. Either way, of course, this is a bad situation, although the military has ways to get its recruits into shape — and its draftees, if it comes to that. — Ed]

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