75% of Potential Recruits Too Fat, Too Sickly, Too Dumb to Serve
By Noah Shachtman
November 4, 2009
10:43 am
Categories: Military Life

More than three-quarters of the nation’s 17- to 24-year-olds couldn’t
serve in the military, even if they wanted to. They’re too fat, too
sickly, too dumb, have too many kids, or have copped to using illegal
drugs.

The armed services are willing to grant waivers for some of those
conditions - asthma, or a little bit of weed. But the military’s
biggest concern is how big and how weak its potential recruits have
become.

“The major component of this is obesity,” Curt Gilroy, the Pentagon’s
director of accessions, tells Army Times‘ William McMichael. “Kids are
just not able to do push-ups… And they can’t do pull-ups. And they
can’t run.”

23 percent of 18- to 34-year-old are now obese, up from just six
percent in 1987.

The group of potential enlistees is further slimmed by the “propensity
to serve” among American youths, which social scientists say also is
declining. According to Gilroy, research shows that about 12 percent
of all U.S. military-eligible youth show an interest in military
service.

The military just had a big recruiting year. But as the economy
improves, and the war in Afghanistan drags on, it’s going to be tough
to rely on such a tiny sliver of America’s youth to maintain an all-
volunteer force. Either the recruiting standards have to change —
maybe the military’s new Cyber Command doesn’t need guys who can do a
bunch of pull-ups. Or the recruits themselves have to.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/11/75-of-potential-recruits-too-fat-too-sickly-too-dumb-to-serve
The biggest success recently has been remotely controlled drones