77% of 18-24 yr old Americans Unfit for Military Service

[namedpipes]

According to headline/story in this week's Epoch Times. The story is behind a paywall but here's a similar story from Military Times. We're f***ed as a country.

"A new study from the Pentagon shows that 77% of young Americans would not qualify for military service without a waiver due to being overweight, using drugs or having mental and physical health problems."

A slide detailing the findings from the Pentagon's 2020 Qualified Military Available Study shared with Military.com shows a 6% increase from the latest 2017 Department of Defense research that showed 71% of Americans would be ineligible for service.

"When considering youth disqualified for one reason alone, the most prevalent disqualification rates are overweight (11%), drug and alcohol abuse (8%), and medical/physical health (7%)," the study, which examined Americans between the ages of 17 and 24, read. The study was conducted by the Pentagon's office of personnel and readiness.

Read Next: The Army is Having No Issue Retaining Soldiers, Amid a Crisis Recruiting New Ones

Mental health accounted for 4% of disqualifications, while aptitude, conduct or being a dependent accounted for 1% each. Most youth, 44%, were disqualified for multiple reasons.

Even More Young Americans Are Unfit to Serve, a New Study Finds. Here's Why.

The updated figures paint a picture of what is currently plaguing military recruiters in many of the service branches, with a shrinking pool of potential service members available to them.

www.military.com

This is SO easy to solve.

Mandatory Military Service. Boot camp would be a series of camps and the more impaired would spend more time in camps oriented for fitness, for mental health as needed, of course a camp for those in transition, and the final session is "regular" boot camp.

Whatever your personal challenges are, you're routed through the appropriate resources until you ARE fit to serve!

Then 2 - 4 years service beyond that point and you're on your own.

President Pipes
2024
Judge Jeanine​

We'll wipe up the floor with them democrats!

 

[SFC13557]

I live an apartment complex with 4 buildings, A, B, C, D and I live in A building. A few weeks ago, during a mini snowstorm someone is ringing my buzzer, so I walk out of my apartment and see a skinny white chick standing there. I open door and she says I'm looking for Ms. Smith in D105. I point to the door which has a big etching on the outside saying, BUILDING A and explain to her that there are 4 buildings A, B, C, D and she needs to go to building D. She replies "I've never been here before" and has a clueless look on her face. She looks like a HS kid and I point to D building and she asks me if all buildings are the same. I feel bad for this kid so I let her in building, tell her to wait while I go into my apt. and put on shoes and jacket and walk her over to D building, locate I assume her teachers name on buzzer and ring it and in she goes.
Talk about CLUELESS! The Youts of America

 

[bfm]

This is SO easy to solve.

I would have gone with: Remove all added Fructose/Corn Syrup from food sold in the US, mandate phys-ed in all Elementary and High Schools.

 

[Dench]

Neither are my students, in general.

Just an observation. I occasionally wonder how much actual time some NESers spend with actual "young people" at all, rather than reading incendiary articles about them.

No doubt the US contains vast swathes of militarily unsuitable raw material. But judging from the kids I work with, very few are morbidly obese. I'd imagine most of the numbers in that study are based on drugs, either prescription or otherwise.

Besides, there's plenty of combat footage these days showing fat Ukrainians fighting well enough. Being overweight is a disqualifier for many military jobs, but in a crisis? Plenty of fatties can (and will) fight. This country is PACKED with obese cops, firefighters, and USAF people; nobody seriously says they simply can't meet the demands of the job, just because they're overweight.

I agree that average NES'r whose QQ'ing about kids these days most likely has little expose to actual kids these days outside of the news cycle and social media posts.

Also, as far as the fat thing goes thats a pretty easy thing to correct. Leave it to the modern military to pretend it can't figure out how to give people less calories. I'd say work people out also but given the comical dumpster fire that is the new PT test, well, the army doesnt seem to know much about fitness.

2 times in my life I fell out of shape in ways I didnt expect. Basic training and the fire academy. In both cases I came out in worse shape than I came in.

 

[namedpipes]

I would have gone with: Remove all added Fructose/Corn Syrup from food sold in the US, mandate phys-ed in all Elementary and High Schools.

That would interfere with commercial businesses!

I wouldn't worry about phys-ed. The worse condition the inductee is in, the longer it will take for them to get through basic training. And because there is NO out, under the Pipes Plan, they could conceivably be in basic training for the rest of their lives, at least until they get in shape enough to finish.

 

[paul73]

Basic training and the fire academy

i think it applies to any country of the world, as your factual fitness or capability is not the point of the boot camp that is intended only to brake you mentally, or push toward the braking point.
your physical condition getting out of it is the last thing they care about.

 

[Dench]

i think it applies to any country of the world, as your factual fitness or capability is not the point of the boot camp that is intended only to brake you mentally, or push toward the braking point.
your physical condition getting out of it is the last thing they care about.

The fire academy is next to impossible to fail and theres zero pressure so it's not like people are breaking mentally, it's like going to a vocational school. People should be in shape though although the fire service (as well as police) don't take that seriously.

As for the military, getting in shape is needed. The hardest parts of basic is nothing to do with PT and everything to do with dealing with your bunkmates who are busy robbing you blind, fighting with you, ratting you out and blaming you for shit. That's really the only hard part of basic. Most of my DS's were great. About 1/4 of the soldiers I was in basic with were bottom of the barrel shit tier people. Dealing with them gets old.

 

[paul73]

dealing with your bunkmates who are busy robbing you blind, fighting with you, ratting you out and blaming you for shit

like i said - the world is the same everywhere. ditto.

 

[GM-GUY]

We CANNOT have a draft. There are too many worthless, woke hippies that would degrade military readiness (not a good idea). USAF boot camp is no longer the wonderful yelling swearfest that I learned new words at. It’s still getting the job done, but I can’t imagine the clusterF that it would become with all the complaints that would be filed through helicopter parents.

 

[eboos]

Isn't that essentially retarded?

Considering 35 (out of a possible 99) was the AFQT floor when I was recruiting, and 50+ was an "alpha", yeah you would have to be dumber than a stump to get an 11. At that point you may as well not even bother with having a minimum score, but simply use the test as a measure of technical aptitude.

Non alphas needed to be squeaky clean! No waivers if they wanted to get in and the number of MOSs they qualified for were pretty slim. Alphas could have had some minor waivers.

 

[Artifact]

There are more than enough viable people for military service but if they are having a recruitment problem.... maybe they need to examine persistent subcultures within the DOD (good people basically get driven to retire) and also this whole bombing brown people bit that over the past 50 or 60 years has gotten very thin.... most of the smarter people have decided to not inhale jingocon retard fumes anymore.... like for example do you really expect people to sign up if somebody like Biden is allowed to be president? Or if we got another jingocon/neocon retard like Bush Jr? I would expect even young conservatives will opt right the f*** out of joining up if they have to serve under that shit.

Absolutely, next wave of good people leaving is coming up. In the next few years it will be washed out and so diluted that we would be unrecognizable. Quality of new recruits not only is down but is laughable.

 

[pastera]

Considering 35 (out of a possible 99) was the AFQT floor when I was recruiting, and 50+ was an "alpha", yeah you would have to be dumber than a stump to get an 11. At that point you may as well not even bother with having a minimum score, but simply use the test as a measure of technical aptitude.

Non alphas needed to be squeaky clean! No waivers if they wanted to get in and the number of MOSs they qualified for were pretty slim. Alphas could have had some minor waivers.

I think I remember my score from the late 80's but I'm not certain if the range has changed.

One thing I do remember is thinking that it was too damn easy to actually fail so you if someone did get such a low score it was on purpose as you would need to know the correct answers to get that many wrong.

 

[eboos]

I think I remember my score from the late 80's but I'm not certain if the range has changed.

One thing I do remember is thinking that it was too damn easy to actually fail so you if someone did get such a low score it was on purpose as you would need to know the correct answers to get that many wrong.

Some of the raw scores go on a 135 point scale if I remember correctly, but the AFQT is a composite score that makes up your basic Armed Forces Qualification (Test).

 

[tuna]

We CANNOT have a draft. There are too many worthless, woke hippies that would degrade military readiness (not a good idea). USAF boot camp is no longer the wonderful yelling swearfest that I learned new words at. It’s still getting the job done, but I can’t imagine the clusterF that it would become with all the complaints that would be filed through helicopter parents.

Whenever the draft comes up, I like to point out that today's US Military is the envy of the world. It is an all volunteer force, with an education level of the basic enlistee that the WWII generation could never dream of for its officer corps.

And it is still full of retards who can't pour piss out of a boot with the instructions in pictures on the heel.


Our military gets enough grief from those appointed and elected over them, don't add by giving them "people" who not only don't want to be there, but also don't know what species they are.

 

[pastera]

Some of the raw scores go on a 135 point scale if I remember correctly, but the AFQT is a composite score that makes up your basic Armed Forces Qualification (Test).

Thanks - I remember the score that I was interested in because of what I was looking to do, I had scored over 100 so I wasn't sure if I the scoring had changed

Like an idiot, I walked away from Air Force because Army NG offered a very sizable bonus

 

[paul73]

I like to point out that today's US Military is the envy of the world.

it is all correct unless country gets involved into a real meatgrinder that requires millions of soldiers.
for most european countries there is no practical workaround to that other than to make sure an EVERY male gets some level of the mandatory training of how to obey a commanding officer.
in more stressed out countries - like israel - both sexes have to get through training.

USA is blessed by its isolation, so, indeed, here, in most scenarios - there is 0 need for the draft or such an intense level of preparedness.
as would if it hurt to have it - nope, it would not. but, it is indeed not needed.

 

[Picton]

Absolutely, next wave of good people leaving is coming up. In the next few years it will be washed out and so diluted that we would be unrecognizable. Quality of new recruits not only is down but is laughable.

Some of that is inevitable, though. Immediate postwar US armies usually suck for several years. The post-WWII army of 1946-49 was nothing to write home about, the post-Korean army was little better, the 1970s post-VN army was a laughingstock, and the immediate post-Cold War army wasn't sure what its mission was.

GWOT gave our army purpose. Now it's gone. There was always going to be a problem with quality; that always happens.

 

[Artifact]

Some of that is inevitable, though. Immediate postwar US armies usually suck for several years. The post-WWII army of 1946-49 was nothing to write home about, the post-Korean army was little better, the 1970s post-VN army was a laughingstock, and the immediate post-Cold War army wasn't sure what its mission was.

GWOT gave our army purpose. Now it's gone. There was always going to be a problem with quality; that always happens.

Sure, however, this is a new problem considering the demographics and new generation is….let’s say super special with soft hands.

 

[G4Y4HK]

This new generation of kids got hella KD in warzone tho no cap

 

[Rockrivr1]

Take pot, ADHD medicine, and anti depressants off the prohibitions to enlist, stop bombing brown people and acting like the world police and this wouldn't be an issue.

I spent a good amount of time untangling the BS that a Navy recruiter was pushing my cousin's son last year. The kid scored decent on the ASVAB and was only three points shy of the MOS he wanted. I dug and found that there was a 5 point variance for that MOS at the time so I went back with my cousin's kid and basically shot the crap out of the mess the recruiter was pushing. He was not happy but agreed to the variance and the kid got his MOS and a date to head to boot camp.

Fast forward to his first test in boot camp and he was being very closely watched by a couple drill instructors while he was taking the test. Would seem that he was bouncing his leg up and down while concentrating on the test. The instructors used that to say he possibly had ADHD and sent him to medical. Medical confirmed he had ADHD and the Navy cycled him out fast. Within a few weeks he was back home with a Medical discharge. I was pretty pissed about that. I don't think they gave the kid a fair shot. The kid had ADHD when he was younger, but he wasn't on medication and he led a normal life.

 

[Mountain]

Plus you end up getting shot at by a 12 yo girl or your legs blown off just so we can announce mission accomplished pull out and the Taliban takes over. Get home to drag queen story hour, covid lockdowns, a stolen election, and rabid anti Americans burning cities to the ground.

Hello 1984

No, think earlier- like Vietnam earlier.

 

[pastera]

I spent a good amount of time untangling the BS that a Navy recruiter was pushing my cousin's son last year. The kid scored decent on the ASVAB and was only three points shy of the MOS he wanted. I dug and found that there was a 5 point variance for that MOS at the time so I went back with my cousin's kid and basically shot the crap out of the mess the recruiter was pushing. He was not happy but agreed to the variance and the kid got his MOS and a date to head to boot camp.

Fast forward to his first test in boot camp and he was being very closely watched by a couple drill instructors while he was taking the test. Would seem that he was bouncing his leg up and down while concentrating on the test. The instructors used that to say he possibly had ADHD and sent him to medical. Medical confirmed he had ADHD and the Navy cycled him out fast. Within a few weeks he was back home with a Medical discharge. I was pretty pissed about that. I don't think they gave the kid a fair shot. The kid had ADHD when he was younger, but he wasn't on medication and he led a normal life.

That's BS - Instead of investing some time in mentoring the kid so he isn't a nervous wreck, just shit can him.

Just about every boy has ADHD if you look at the right time. If he can live life without the drugs then no reason to cycle him home.

 

[SFC13557]

I spent a good amount of time untangling the BS that a Navy recruiter was pushing my cousin's son last year. The kid scored decent on the ASVAB and was only three points shy of the MOS he wanted. I dug and found that there was a 5 point variance for that MOS at the time so I went back with my cousin's kid and basically shot the crap out of the mess the recruiter was pushing. He was not happy but agreed to the variance and the kid got his MOS and a date to head to boot camp.

Fast forward to his first test in boot camp and he was being very closely watched by a couple drill instructors while he was taking the test. Would seem that he was bouncing his leg up and down while concentrating on the test. The instructors used that to say he possibly had ADHD and sent him to medical. Medical confirmed he had ADHD and the Navy cycled him out fast. Within a few weeks he was back home with a Medical discharge. I was pretty pissed about that. I don't think they gave the kid a fair shot. The kid had ADHD when he was younger, but he wasn't on medication and he led a normal life.

That's BS, Drill Instructors NCOER's are based on how many recruits they get thru basic so I don't know why they would want to railroad the kid.

Back in the 80's if a recruit showed up at Reception Battalion out of shape they were sent to FTU (Fitness Training Unit) until they lost weight and could do minimum pushups and situps.
Virgil Hoffman was a fat, lazy, ugly kid from Missouri who spent 6 weeks in FTU and they stuck him in my Basic Training Platoon. After our diagnostic PT test 3rd day of basic I was called into DS office and told because I was old and I easily passed PT test I was stuck with Virgil. He was my battle buddy and I needed to work with him to try to get him to pass. The kid couldn't do 12 proper PU's and 10 SU's and after 4 weeks it was pretty clear Virgil was a no go and he knew it. He started waking up in the middle of the night, putting on his BDU's, grabbing his E-tool and standing at the foot of a recruit's bed at attention performing the manual of arms until the kid woke up and freaked out. I told him to knock it off and explained to the rest of the knuckleheads what he was doing but they were convinced he would hack them to death in their sleep. This was just after Full Metal Jacket came out and it was made quite clear to me by SSG. Saunders there would be NO blanket parties.
I finally had to tell my DS and they pulled him from training but made him stay thru the whole cycle as punishment. He was a road guard at our graduation.

 

[weekendracer]

According to headline/story in this week's Epoch Times. The story is behind a paywall but here's a similar story from Military Times. We're f***ed as a country.

"A new study from the Pentagon shows that 77% of young Americans would not qualify for military service without a waiver due to being overweight, using drugs or having mental and physical health problems."

A slide detailing the findings from the Pentagon's 2020 Qualified Military Available Study shared with Military.com shows a 6% increase from the latest 2017 Department of Defense research that showed 71% of Americans would be ineligible for service.

"When considering youth disqualified for one reason alone, the most prevalent disqualification rates are overweight (11%), drug and alcohol abuse (8%), and medical/physical health (7%)," the study, which examined Americans between the ages of 17 and 24, read. The study was conducted by the Pentagon's office of personnel and readiness.

Read Next: The Army is Having No Issue Retaining Soldiers, Amid a Crisis Recruiting New Ones

Mental health accounted for 4% of disqualifications, while aptitude, conduct or being a dependent accounted for 1% each. Most youth, 44%, were disqualified for multiple reasons.

Even More Young Americans Are Unfit to Serve, a New Study Finds. Here's Why.

The updated figures paint a picture of what is currently plaguing military recruiters in many of the service branches, with a shrinking pool of potential service members available to them.

www.military.com

From my experience in two school districts, those numbers are low. The upcoming generation won't be any better. I'm almost debating making my kids get in better shape, if they are the only one's who pass a test, they are screwed. But, like I said in another post, I already have a 'Canada Fund' set up for them. Sure, it's a college fund, but it goes both ways.

They might be 'in shape' or 'not obese', but they simply can't take the pressure that real combat would impose.

 

[Picton]

They might be 'in shape' or 'not obese', but they simply can't take the pressure that real combat would impose.

Perhaps. But the same has been said about many, many prior generations by many, many countries. And they've always stepped up, as a generation, when needed. Fact is, there's no way to predict who'll handle combat well and who won't. How many real soldiers, with actual training and indoctrination, have turned out to be unable to take the pressure of combat? Thousands, over the years.

Time will tell. Or, hopefully, it won't have to.

 

[HuntMaine]

Parents must be proud to have raised fat slugs

 

[pastera]

That's BS, Drill Instructors NCOER's are based on how many recruits they get thru basic so I don't know why they would want to railroad the kid.

Back in the 80's if a recruit showed up at Reception Battalion out of shape they were sent to FTU (Fitness Training Unit) until they lost weight and could do minimum pushups and situps.
Virgil Hoffman was a fat, lazy, ugly kid from Missouri who spent 6 weeks in FTU and they stuck him in my Basic Training Platoon. After our diagnostic PT test 3rd day of basic I was called into DS office and told because I was old and I easily passed PT test I was stuck with Virgil. He was my battle buddy and I needed to work with him to try to get him to pass. The kid couldn't do 12 proper PU's and 10 SU's and after 4 weeks it was pretty clear Virgil was a no go and he knew it. He started waking up in the middle of the night, putting on his BDU's, grabbing his E-tool and standing at the foot of a recruit's bed at attention performing the manual of arms until the kid woke up and freaked out. I told him to knock it off and explained to the rest of the knuckleheads what he was doing but they were convinced he would hack them to death in their sleep. This was just after Full Metal Jacket came out and it was made quite clear to me by SSG. Saunders there would be NO blanket parties.
I finally had to tell my DS and they pulled him from training but made him stay thru the whole cycle as punishment. He was a road guard at our graduation.

I almost got sent to FTU for being too thin.
Literally put rocks in my pockets to get the extra pound or two I needed.
They would tape the big guys for body fat but not the thin guys.

 

[weekendracer]

Perhaps. But the same has been said about many, many prior generations by many, many countries. And they've always stepped up, as a generation, when needed. Fact is, there's no way to predict who'll handle combat well and who won't. How many real soldiers, with actual training and indoctrination, have turned out to be unable to take the pressure of combat? Thousands, over the years.

Time will tell. Or, hopefully, it won't have to.

I call it like I see it. It's my generation that raised them or their parents. My generation failed.

 

[Tartakovsky]

I am 22 and very offended by this thread.

 

[tuna]

I almost got sent to FTU for being too thin.
Literally put rocks in my pockets to get the extra pound or two I needed.
They would tape the big guys for body fat but not the thin guys.

Years back, the only "fitness" standard that the Air Guard did was height and weight. We had a guy in the Life Support shop who pushed the envelope every time. One year, he weighed himself and was safe by about 5 pounds. He then loaded his uniform with 20# of small weights and went for his weigh in.

Sorry Bruce, you're over.
Wait a minute! I gotta take a shit, hold on, I'll be right back!
Bruce - you're over by close to 20 pounds, it won't matter.

He then went to the bathroom and made some loud noises while emptying his pockets and came back looking relieved.

The look on the weight checker's face was amazing when it appeared that this guy shit out 20 pounds in the span of a couple minutes.