- The Washington Times - Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Youth obesity in American has forced U.S. Army recruiters to increasingly take on a role similar to that of a trainer from the television show “The Biggest Loser.”

Maj. Gen. Allen Batschelet, who is in charge of U.S. Army Recruiting Command, said Wednesday that the prevalence of grossly overweight Americans may lead to 50 percent of all applicants being rejected within a decade. Roughly 10 percent of all applicants are unfit to serve today.

“It’s really very worrisome. […] It really becomes a national security issue. In my view, it does. It’s not a military problem; it’s a societal issue. […] The trends are in the wrong direction,” the general told CNN.

Gen. Allen told the network that recruiters are essentially becoming life coaches for overweight applicants.

“Your recruiters sort of act like ’The Biggest Loser’ on television,” CNN’s Carol Costello said.

“They can,” the general replied. “So we have programs. It’s called the Future Soldier Program. And if you decide you want to join the Army we’ll begin the enlistment process. We’ll get you contracted. You can start coming to a recruiting center. We’ll have physical workouts three, four times a week and work with you so that you’ll be able to meet those standards when you go off to basic training. But there are limits to that,” Gen. Allen added.


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CNN reported that the federal government considers one-third of all U.S. adults obese, a tripling of the statistic from only one decade ago.

• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.

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