More than three quarters of 18-24 year olds are unfit for military service, the US Department of Defense revealed.

The vast majority of Americans aged 17-24 are unfit for military service, the US Department of Defense (DOD) disclosed in a report. The US Armed Forces are finding it increasingly difficult to meet the nation’s volunteer recruitment goals, due in part to the shrinking pool of recruits available for recruitment.

In fact, 77 per cent of young Americans are unfit for military service, says the Pentagon.

The DOD report named obesity as one major cause. The proportion of overweight young people has been rising steadily for decades, while 42.9 per cent of the US adult population is classified as obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 1999, this rate was more than 10 percentage points lower.

The report highlighted that with the rise in the number of young people unfit for military service, it has become more important than ever for policymakers, including state and local school districts, to promote healthy eating, increase access to fresh and nutritious foods, and encourage physical activity among children from an early age.

While the number of young people fit for service is decreasing, the army may also face a number of other obstacles in recruiting younger soldiers. There is also a widespread perception among young people that the army is conducting leftist social experiments instead of focusing on improving its weapons and the readiness of its personnel.

As part of its „The Calling” recruiting campaign in 2021, the Army unveiled a series of advertisements highlighting the service stories of people from a wide variety of backgrounds. The campaign has been widely described as ultra-liberal, and has received considerable criticism from conservative lawmakers representing the South and Midwest, areas that are typically the primary recruiting grounds for the military. The campaign’s advertisements featured immigrants and LGBTQ people in the name of diversity, which did not appeal to many.

While the United States is facing serious recruitment difficulties, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in his interview marking the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion, predicted that the time may come when the US will have to send its „sons and daughters” to fight Russia.

As Ukraine’s head of state put it,

“the US will have to send their sons and daughters exactly the same way as we are sending our sons and daughters to war. (…) And they will have to fight (…) and they will be dying.”

If Ukraine does not receive enough support from the West and loses the war, it will be up to the United States to stop Russia’s further attempts to expand in Europe, President Zelensky opined.