According to a report by the American Security Project (ASP), 68 percent of the U.S. Armed Forces Reserves are in suboptimal physical condition, even overweight. This is a deterioration of 3 percentage points from the data reported in 2018.
The news caught Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth off guard. He called the results reported by the survey “unacceptable” and promised to make immediate changes to make the reserves “fit and not fat.”
“This is what happens when standards are IGNORED — and this is what we are changing”, the Pentagon leader added. As if that were not enough, the ASP reported that similar data were also found among serving forces. “These service members experience heightened risk for a wide variety of serious health conditions, such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, and osteoarthritis, which may lead to life-threatening health events such as stroke and heart failure,” the report states.
“To be the world’s most lethal and effective fighting force you have to set and maintain high standards for our men and women in uniform,” Hegseth, who has been known to post photos of his workouts on social media, explained during a speech given at the Army War College. “To be lethal you have to trust that the warrior alongside you in battle or the troops fighting in the unit that many of you will lead are capable, truly physically capable, of doing what is necessary under fire”.
Earlier this month, Hegseth ordered the Army to make physical fitness standards for all combat jobs gender-neutral, sparking the ire of many women.
In a new memo, the secretary of Defense told military service leaders to distinguish which jobs can be considered combat jobs–such as special operations or infantry, which require “heightened entry level and sustained physical fitness– and which are not.
The memo released Monday says all physical fitness requirements for combat positions must be based solely on operational requirements and readiness necessary to deal with any adversary.
In reality, Hegseth’s memo mentions higher fitness requirements already in place for special operations forces, but now he would like these to be made standard for all serving members, even the reserves.
