Pool of potential enlistees is shrinking - due to obesity - any suggestions?

Edward Samsen - Certainly. But the issue may be twofold: one issue is that you have to make someone WANT to enlist. More and more, military service is a "family business". That may not be a sustainable may to maintain our military power. After you've made them want to enlist, you have to convince them to make the lifestyle changes to enlist BEFORE they're actually getting a paycheck and indoctrinated into the culture.

All the anecdotes by senior enlisted personnel and senior officers ignore the fact that they came from a different time. When I first enlisted in '89, 1/3 of the US was not obese. Times have changed. Less than 1% of our population has any military experience, and that's after we've been at war for the better part of two decades.

Asking a person to "soldier-up" before they're Soldiers may be a bridge too far.

SFC Marcus Belt - Unfortunately too few of our young people are involved in athletics, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. All of these assist in the physical conditioning of youth. I remember as an 11 0r 12 year old humping a rucksack and later an external frame pack full of camping gear to my final destination. Once there we often hiked to other locations returning to our campsite by night. I am sure you can tell among your troops who were scouts and who were not

.

Not disagreeing. Not entirely anyway.

But the number of people who meet that requirement has dropped below DoD attrition numbers.

That's gotta get fixed.

I disagree. The primary problem with that statement is it completely egocentric and does nothing toward unlocking potential. It’s the lazy “I’m good” answer.

We have a lot of work to do to fix the multiple issues that contribute to the malaise and lackadaisical attitude toward readiness. Starting with how we view individual readiness and compensate/reward performance. The reality is not everyone is a stud, studs get broken and burnt out because they get overworked and the political agenda bullshit/social engineering/social and cultural norms that all influence readiness down to the operational units and individuals need to be addressed in order to recruit/train/retain top talent.

PE is great but when you stuff your pie hole 47 times a day and drink 37 Mountain Dews a day, you are going to be a fat a55. No way around it.

We need to approach physical activity as doing it for yourself, not for the grade or the Army. We seem to reward obesity by ignoring it. Kids now may he lucky to make it to 40 without a heart attack.

SPC Jan Allbright, you are misinformed and posting alternative facts. if Not every state has removed P.E. from school. https://www.shapeamerica.org//advocacy/son/upload/shape-of-the-nation-infographic1.pdf

What is wrong with the old days? PT everyday, basic training you have fat and skinny troops,, the Army molded them into shape, and after basic PT was a everyday duty.

SGT Richard Lambert - In your "simplicity", this is actually a beautiful idea and approach. I don't see that the military can actually do anything to the civilian population, and least wise the American youth. But they can take someone and make them (mold, develop, whatever you want to call it) into a decent and fit trooper.. They did me, when I was 19.

That's right...