Super-sizing the soldier: Is obesity going to pose a huge recruiting problem?

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By Jim
Gourley

Best
Defense department of physical fitness and national security

Obesity and weight-related
health conditions have become a prevalent concern to American policy in the
last decade. National military
leadership was also exposed to obesity's potential risks to national security
with the release of the report "Too Fat to Fight" by Mission Readiness in 2010. The group's primary message is that a
burgeoning population of overweight American children will drastically reduce
an already diminished pool of viable candidates for military service in the next ten years. However, these reports indicate only the most
general aspects of the problem and focus on projections of future
implications. When the scope of the
American obesity epidemic is examined specifically within the context of its
impact on the armed forces, data shows clearly that the threat is not imminent,
but existential.

At present, 62 percent of active duty
military members over the age of 20 have a body mass index that falls into
either the overweight or obese category. For personnel under the age of 20, the number stands at 35 percent. That is actually an improvement from a 2005
rate of 46 percent. These statistics are often
challenged due to the disputable methods of calculating Body Mass Index
(BMI). However, the 2011 Annual Summary of the Armed Forces Health Survey Center cites
21,185 medical diagnoses for overweight, obesity and hyperalimentation
(overeating). Research also dispels
service culture stigmas. No service is
immune to overweight issues. Comparing the relative percentages of overweight/obese service members, the Navy is the fattest service at
62.7 percent, followed by the Army at 61 percent, the Air Force at 58.8 percent. The Marines register the fittest at 55.1 percent,
still substantially more than half overweight. Closer examination shows that more than 12 percent of active duty service
members in each service are obese. The
Marines break the trend more significantly in this category with a 6.1 percent obesity
rate.

The increase of girth in the
military progressed at a linear rate between 1995 and 2005, but has remained
fairly consistent since then. However,
emerging data indicates that the overweight population may rise further in the
next ten years if the military is to meet recruiting goals. A new study by the Trust for America's Health
predicts that more than half of Americans in 39 states will be obese by
2030. This is disturbing enough, but it
becomes even more troubling for the armed forces when individual state
recruitment trends are compared to their childhood obesity rates. All ten
states that contributed the most military inductees in 2010 have childhood
obesity rates greater than 15 percent. Three of
them (including Texas, which was second in total recruitment with over 15,000
new military members) exhibit rates between 20-25 percent. The preponderance of our young military
members come from the most ponderous states.

The problem is not simply one
of cosmetics or intangible metrics of combat performance. The costs of an unfit military carry a
real-dollar value. A 2007 joint study by
The Lewin Group and TRICARE management activity estimated that the Defense
Department spends $1.1 billion annually on medical care for obesity and
overweight conditions. This study
included dependents and retirees who qualified for TRICARE Prime coverage. More restricted to the active duty component
are the costs to manpower. The AFHSC
report tallied 245 "bed days" for medical treatment directly linked
to weight issues, and 4,555 service members were involuntarily separated for
failing to meet weight standards in 2008. The recruiting and initial entry training costs alone represent a loss
of $225 million. Adding in specific
military job training, logistics, equipment and the cost of lost duty days
brings the annual price tag of overweight service members to about $1.5
billion. That exceeds the military's
budget for Predator drones in 2010. The
military still fails to grasp the true scale of the problem so long as comorbidities of
overweight and obesity remain unexamined. There were more than 42,000 service members
affected by hypertension and another 5,700 by diabetes in 2011. Hypertension alone ranks in the top thirty
conditions affecting active duty service members. Also overlooked is the expense of XXL chemical warfare
suits and development of other
plus-sized uniform items.

The military's response to the
problem has been mixed. The Army
provided waivers to 1,500 new recruits who failed to meet weight standards in
2007. The program remains in place but
the numbers of waivers issued in subsequent years have not been published. The Navy had a similar program until
2010. The Air Force never offered such a
program and the Marines actually tightened standards in the 2009-2011 time period. Trends suggest that weight standards are on a
sliding scale driven largely by manpower requirements and retention problems in
a wartime military.

Therein lies the greatest
problem. It seems all but certain that
American society will continue gaining weight over the next decade. In this regard, the military may be a kind of
canary in the cave given its emphasized dependence on physical fitness for
mission success. However, without an
established position on the matter of physical fitness standards and given the
likelihood that leaders at every level will themselves be at an unhealthy
weight, it is possible that the military will experience substantial increases
in operating costs and diminished capability in the next decade.

Jim Gourley is a Best Defense jolly good fellow.