"Woke" Military Loosens Standards For Comatose Slob Americans

What do all the Republican morons bitching & whining about "wokeness" in the military have to say about their lard-ass cracker constituents?

Army planners in recent years have become increasingly concerned over new recruits' declining physical fitness. Participation in high school sports has dropped in recent years while childhood obesity rates have reached "epidemic levels," according to research from the National Library of Medicine. 17% of U.S. children are obese, the research found, a number that has been steadily rising for decades.

Nationally, the South has the highest prevalence of obesity, something researchers have attributed to a slew of factors including restrictions on access to health care, high-quality fitness facilities and healthy food. Large swaths of the South also have relatively low household incomes -- putting easy access to fitness training and healthy foods even further out of reach.

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But that would have little impact on basic training injuries, with new recruits coming straight from civilian life. Most enlistees come into the Army with little background in fitness, showing up without knowing how to do the exercises included in the fitness test, Staff Sgt. Krista Osborne, the Army's 2022 drill sergeant of the year, told Military.com in October.

Obesity is a key sticking point in the Army's recruiting troubles, with many possible applicants out of compliance with the service's body fat standards. Last year, the Army started a 90-day pre-basic training course for applicants up to 6% over the service's body fat limit. How much body fat a soldier can have varies, but the maximum is 20% for 17- to 20-year-old males and 30% for women in the same age group.

The pre-basic course goes over healthy eating and has applicants work out twice a day. Roughly 90% of those students graduate and move on to basic training. The Navy is starting a similar program.

Army leaders, particularly Gen. James McConville, the service's top officer, have routinely vowed not to lower any standards for service, though other branches are starting to retreat from previous fitness and body fat standards. The Air Force on Monday announced it is dramatically loosening body fat percentage restrictions, allowing up to 26% body fat for men from a previous threshold of 20%, and up to 36% for women from 30%.

[Military.com]