Military Readiness at Every Size?

The U.S. military has a problem with obesity and frankly has no clue of how to deal with it. The prevalence of obesity in the population has grown so that the services cannot run from the problem. Simply expelling service members because of their size no longer works to maintain military readiness. The supply of potential recruits untouched by obesity has become so small that it falls far short of needs. In 2023, the Army, Navy, and Air Force missed recruiting goals by 41,000. Only the Marines and the Space Force (the smallest branches of service) met their goals.

For insight into the dominant mindset that is failing the military, an article in MilitaryTimes is helpful.

“Our young service members are experiencing a crisis involving too much junk food and not enough movement that is leading them to be overweight and obese.”

Facing Reality

With regard to obesity, military policy seems be stuck on the idea that this is a simple problem of sloth and gluttony. In this way of thinking, military discipline is the obvious answer. Discharge the soldiers who don’t shape up. But that’s not working. The services are losing good soldiers because of a health condition that affects three-fourths of the population. To rely on only a quarter of the population to fill the ranks will never work. Military readiness is suffering as the size of the problem grows.

To cope, Courtney Manning suggests that military policy will have to change:

“The Air Force’s ongoing controversy and adjustment of body mass testing tools reflect a broader trend within the armed forces, where non-evidence-based body composition policies fail to keep troops in shape but are nevertheless maintained (with constant tweaks) to avoid reversing centuries of military policy. The hesitation to admit that obesity is a disease despite ongoing breakthroughs in medical science prevents the armed forces from tackling its crisis head-on, perpetuating a cycle where overweight personnel are unfairly judged and yet not given the tools to succeed. To move forward, agency focus must shift from appearance-based metrics to health interventions proven to treat servicemembers with obesity.”

In short, a painful reckoning lies ahead for the U.S. military. For many purposes, military discipline is helpful. But it is not adequate for curing obesity.

Click here for the MilitaryTimes article and here for the essay by Courtney Manning. For a very complete analysis by Megan Thibodeaux of the effects rising obesity has had on military recruitment, click here.

Soldiers with Bread, painting by Marc Chagall / WikiArt

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August 7, 2024