Unfit to Serve? Obesity Epidemic Creating Recruitment Woes, National Security Risk – Biden's DEI Policies Don't Help
The U.S. military has faced a number of problems recently in recruiting new soldiers, especially in a nation with an increasing obesity problem among its young people. But President Joe Biden’s obsession with pushing woke ideology on recruits instead of teaching them to fight is not helping matters at all.
The U.S. Army, for instance, has launched a new program called the Future Soldier Preparatory Course to which recruits who are too overweight to join the service right away are sent for 90 days to lose enough weight to be sent to basic training, according to Military.com.
Would be soldiers who are sent to the training center at Fort Jackson in South Carolina are given temporary status as an official recruit pending the successful outcome of their 90-day pre-induction training period.
The site noted that 278 of the most recent class of 989 basic training graduates came from the Future Soldier Preparatory Course.
The pre-basic training program is not just for overweight recruits. It also has an academic department for recruits who failed the entrance exam in math or other academic fields. In this department, possible recruits are given tutoring to help them bring their academic scores up high enough to pass the Army’s written test, called the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery or ASVAB.
The situation with recruiting is so bad that even the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention teamed up to put out an infographic entitled “Unfit to Serve, Obesity and Physical Inactivity Are Impacting National Security.”
“Just over 1 in 3 young adults aged 17-24 is too heavy to serve in our military,” the CDC said.
Unfortunately, these services the Pentagon is offering seem to be necessary since so many students are emerging from high school seriously overweight and without basic skills in math, science, English, and writing.
The Pentagon reported that 77 percent of Americans of recruitment age do not qualify for military service. They attribute the shortfalls to drug use, obesity, and mental or physical health issues.
The Army, Navy and Air Force are all projected to miss recruiting goals for 2023, according to Military.com. So, the woke Pentagon has been left desperately trying to find ways to fill their swiftly depleting ranks.
Indeed, as far as the ASVAB goes, the Pentagon has already taken steps to dumb down the test and is even now allowing calculators to be used on the test’s math portion.
The ASVAB had remained largely unchanged since its introduction in 1968 until more recent times when it was called “racist” for having bias towards white people, according to the Army Times.
The Pentagon has also begun lowering fitness requirements to get more recruits through the door, the Military Times reported in March of last year. And even more changes to make the requirements came earlier this year, the Army Times added.
Still, despite the grater societal problems with America’s youth, many are also pointing to the highly woke atmosphere that Joe Biden’s Pentagon is forcing on the U.S. military.
Many critics are pointing to the Pentagon’s absurd diversity policies for chasing away recruits, Military.com reported in March.
Conservatives are urging the Pentagon to ditch its woke DEI policies and get back to teaching soldiers how to fight wars.
GOP Rep. Mike Waltz of Florida, for one, said that the woke policies are hurting the military and added, “these initiatives have taken a real toll on our military and its perception amongst the public.”
Waltz headed a panel along with the Heritage Foundation that found that the Pentagon’s “sweeping embrace of diversity, equity, and inclusion” policies are undermining the services.
Many others have also chimed in to criticize the Pentagon for going woke.
In March 2022, Retired Col. Mitchell Swan, who is a Republican candidate for Georgia’s 10th Congressional District, blasted Biden’s military policies for making this country weaker.
“The biggest European land war since World War II, and where is our military focused? Gender dysphoria and woke training. This is insane,” Swan said in a campaign video.
In June, Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado also slammed Biden’s military after the Air Force took to social media to celebrate “pride” month. Rep. Boebert was alarmed that the artwork made it look as if an airman was saluting the LGBT flag.
June is #PrideMonth! The Department of the Air Force proudly recognizes and celebrates generations of LGBTQI+ service members and their contributions to our #AirForce & #SpaceForce. pic.twitter.com/lQi9lH5sdr
— U.S. Air Force (@usairforce) June 7, 2023
“We salute one flag and one flag only in the United States of America. It isn’t the ‘Pride’ flag,” Boebert tweeted.
We salute one flag and one flag only in the United States of America.
It isn’t the “Pride” flag. https://t.co/LnxCdf1fpK
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) June 8, 2023
The woke foolishness is coming from the top, as well. Last year, Biden even claimed he intended to wokeize the military’s vehicles by making them “climate friendly.”
BIDEN: “EVERY vehicle in the United States military, every vehicle, is going to be climate friendly.” pic.twitter.com/0fcnMKoOf0
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 22, 2022
Granted, it is easy to see why the Pentagon is constantly dumbing down the tests and requirements for new recruits. But it is just as clear that the Pentagon is even more interested in categorizing soldiers by gender and sexual orientation and less interested in skills such as health, education and proficiency in math — the latter of which is needed in all high-tech jobs.
Biden’s military is failing our country in a number of ways. The solution might just be to refocus on military training and stop trying to be a left-wing social experiment.
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