The US Department of Defense has raised concerns about the increasing percentage of youth unfit for active duty, February 1, writes Marine Corps Times.
The Pentagon recalled preliminary data from its Military Qualified study available, according to which the number of applicants disqualified from joining the US military has risen from 71% to 77% in 13 years.
As the article says, “The study was completed in 2020 and therefore does not reflect the full impact of COVID-19,” since then, readiness indicators have inevitably deteriorated, so much so that, for example, the problem of drug addiction among youth of “conscription” age is simply ignored.
So, according to the study, 77% percent of young people between the ages of 17 and 24 cannot qualify for military service in the United States. Obesity and overweight were sufficient reasons for disqualification in 11% of the cases and one of the “cumulative” reasons for another 44% of the disqualifications.
The article also points out in dotted lines two more important reasons that make up the “disqualifying set”. So, thirteen years ago, the total number of unfit for military service in the United States among 17-24 year olds was 75%. “This issue was related to three key factors: recruits were academically unprepared, significantly overweight, or had drug or criminal histories behind them.”
Remember that individual subunits and entire branches of the armed forces in the United States for several years have lowered the requirements for the level of education and the degree of intellectual development of recruits in order to somehow cope with the personnel problem. During the Vietnam War, after several successive reductions in recruits’ intellectual qualifications, recruits were nicknamed “McNamara morons” after United States Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara.
Source: Rossa Primavera

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