Obesity and National Security

Obesity and National Security

Can America’s children be the current largest threat to National Security? According to recent report labeled Mission Readiness (2010), 9 million young adults are to overweight to join the military. “When weight problems are combined with educational deficits, criminal records, and other disqualifiers such as asthma or drug abuse, 75 percent of Americans 17 to 24 years old are unable to join the military” (Gilroy, 2009). The obesity problem is not only affecting recruitment, it also costs millions of dollars a year to replace those who are discharged for not passing the military physical fitness test. Climbing obesity rates in America have a direct effect on our national security.

The United States Department of Defense standards are set to ensure that U.S. forces are able to meet the rigorous demands of deployments in physically challenging situations. In a time of war, the physical abilities of military soldiers and that of their fellow soldiers can be the difference between life and death. Consider Lance Corporal Todd Corbin, “running through the line of fire, Corbin grabbed his wounded patrol leader and threw him over his shoulder. He then sprinted back to his Humvee, firing at enemies as he ran. Corbin ran back and forth several times through the kill zone, moving everyone he could out of the withering fire and loaded them into his vehicle.” (http://ourmilitaryheroes.defense.gov, 2010). Military soldiers need to have the ability and agility to think on their feet; being physically fit reinforces that they are working at peak performance

Every year, between 3,000 and 5,000 service members are forced to leave the military because of being overweight (Levi, 2008). In 2004 the physical fitness test for the United States Air Force was revamped, eliminating weight and body-fat as a stand-alone pass/fail requirement (Powers, 2008). This means that regardless of your BMI, overweight Airman can now pass the fitness test by scoring higher on push-ups or sit-ups. In an article U.S. Troops to Fat to Fight it states, “If the overweight and obesity of our troops is not fixed, we are dealing