Fat-Soldier Down
Obesity inside of the military has more than tripled in the last 15 years leaving our national security at risk. Not to mention, this increase within the Army ranks has become an issue of mission readiness for combat operations. The massive cut down has left many soldiers feeling targeted after being assessed by the highly unreliable tape test. Although the method for measuring body fat has been inaccurate it doesn't take away the problem of overweight and obese soldiers in the Army. Do not feel bad for them. Soldiers have an opportunity to salvage their career by enrolling in the Army Body Composition Program where they receive nutritional help and extra physical training. Failure to complete the program results in a possible discharge.
What is considered obesity? According to the National Strength and Conditioning Association, obesity can be diagnosed with body fat percentages above 25% for men and 32% for women. Waist measurements at or above 40 inches for men and 35 inches for women is also considered obese. Having high body fat and waist measurements leaves a person at a higher risk for diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and a myriad of other problems. Does this sound like what a soldier should be? I would hope not, unfortunately, this is a problem in the US Army and I can speak from experience as well. This doesn't only affect combat readiness because of the amount of overweight or obese soldiers in the Army. This limits the recruiting pool in our nation as obesity is a wide spread problem. Combat Readiness is directly affected because of a having to kick soldiers out for failing to meet standards and not having an ideal population to chose from. Every year the military discharges over 1,200 enlistees before their contracts expire. This costs the Army $75,000 to train a new soldier which roughly costs about $60 million per year. TRICARE (the Military's health insurance system) spends over $1 billion annually treating obesity related illnesses. This equates to over 658,000 work days missed causing reduced productivity which costs over $105 million per year. This is our war fighting system? Is the money lost irrelevant to combat readiness? Our training resulted in simulated training or rehearsing with toy soldiers compared to combat live fires and realistic training. Soldiers have complained stating that the physical fitness test is too strenuous leaving great soldiers being targeted for separation. The Army Physical Fitness test consists of a 2 mile run, 2 minutes of pushups and sit-ups, followed up by height and weight measurements. For an overweight soldier this may be strenuous. The high quality soldiers always pass with flying colors (in fact they train off duty as well). |
Below is the maximum body fat percentages allowed per age group in the US Army.
From the table alone we can see that the standards allow for some heavy weight slipping to occur. This does not give an appearance of strength, professionalism, and most of all, discipline. You can not regulate how or when a soldier eats especially in an operational environment. Unit physical training is only meant to maintain military standards and not increase them. It is a soldier's responsibility to maintain a fighting posture. In 2008, more than 70,000 ACTIVE DUTY service members were diagnosed as being overweight. This may not seem huge. Consider this; from 1995 the number of failed physical exams due to overweight rose nearly 70% US Army Public Health Command did a study to see the body fat standards in females serving in a light infantry brigade. The study found that 22% exceeded the body fat standards and had poor aerobic and muscular strength scores taken from the physical fitness test. I am tracking this is only women. But it is one brigade! Imagine the stats if males were studied too! I have served with some of the finest female soldiers who were on the front lines with me so to say that they don't need to be in the best of shape is completely irrelevant. I also had the pleasure of working as a Master Fitness Trainer for the US army where I would help train a four week course on proper physical conditioning, nutrition, and the whole 9 yards. We would begin the class by administering an fitness test. In every class, more than 55% of the soldiers failed the fitness test. 30% would be overweight and not meat the body fat standards. The classes consisted of Non-commissioned Officers and Officers of all ranks. These were leaders. The standards are slipping and they need to be stricter. Will this impact readiness further? Obesity is an epidemic and it needs to be addressed but it should never have been a problem within the military. It is not hard to maintain the standard by any means. A soldier who can’t perform as a soldier becomes a liability and a risk for their comrades. In the Army we trust that our battle buddies have our backs and are capable of handling any situation. Unfortunately, sometimes the back is exposed because the soldier has fallen out and can’t keep up in the fight leaving a weak link in war machine that runs as a system. The body fat standards are too high and not enforced costing millions of dollars but more importantly, lives. I would rather serve with a small elite Army than a large Army of average or below standard. So how does this cause a problem to combat readiness. Higher body fat and waist circumference predisposes soldiers to health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, etc costing the Army millions of dollars to discharge, recruit, and train a new soldier to replace. The amount of people to recruit is limited as America has a severe obesity problem. Having a small Army can be a threat to national security and combat readiness as there won't be enough to cover all missions or aspects associated with deployments in hostile zones. Soldier's are expected to be soldiers before their actually military occupation. A soldier who is running the lines of obesity may be able to perform as a soldier but is still a risk if he or she should become a casualty. Combat gear can add an additional 100 pounds. To an unfit soldier, this will be future cause of joint related problems. It is physically taxing just to walk with the gear. Put a soldier with excess fat and body weight to him, that gear will cause him to shake and eventually fall out (yes it does happen) and what happens if a fight breaks out? In our unit, I can not count how many times some of us would take gear off of the "larger" soldiers so that they could keep up. It is a problem that puts everyone at risk. |