By Eleanor Boudreau
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkno/local-wkno-906797.mp3
Memphis, TN – Most of us are familiar with the health concerns associated with obesity--high blood pressure, diabetes, and reduced life-expectancy. Now a group of retired military officials called "Mission: Readiness" would like to add national security to the list. Obesity among young Americans has more than doubled in the past 15 years; and, in a report titled Too Fat To Fight the group says that's cutting into the number of people eligible to join the military.
On a recent episode, Stephen Colbert ribbed the report, but Mission: Readiness' National Director, Amy Taggart, insists their work describes a serious problem. Only about a quarter of the nation's youth is even eligible to join the military, and being overweight is the number one medical reason applicants are rejected.
"This is not just about looking good in a uniform, it's about being healthy and fit to do the work of the nation," Taggart said.
"I don't see it being a problem, period," said Staff Sergeant James Kalkstein.
Kalkstein is an army recruiter with what is best described as a can-do attitude. Before recruiting, he did three tours of duty as an infantryman in Iraq. Kalkstein doesn't think a lot about weight. He lifts weights for an hour and a half every day; and as we walk into Wendy's for lunch, he tells me he doesn't know how to diet. Then, as if to prove his point, he orders two double cheeseburgers.
"Would you like to see my abs?" Kalkstein asks.
Kalkstein works in Mississippi where 35 percent of the population is obese, making it one of the fattest states in the nation. On the job, Kalkstein works out with high school football teams. He says the typical Mississippian interested in joining the military is just fitter than the population as a whole.
And Kalkstein likes to point out that weight is only a temporary disqualifier. If you really want to join the military, he says, you will shed the pounds.
Despite rising obesity rates, the army is doing very well recruiting right now, and has always done well during tough economic times. Taggart says, "A weak economy is no formula for staffing a strong military. And that is what is happening now."
When the economy gets better, Taggart warns, the rising obesity rates will becomes a huge problem for military recruiters. But it's not just the recruiters she is worried about.
"For many of our young people, especially kids who are living in low income families, military service can become a transforming experience, elevating not only a single individual into the middle class, but also entire future generations of that same family."
That Kalkstein agrees with. He says the army gave him, "Discipline, direction, I had a stable job, I had money for college. I had all of the above that you can accomplish without the army, it just takes you longer."
Those are some of the things the army offers to the young, but not the obese.