55 percent of airmen overweight

[unhappycamper]

55 percent of airmen overweight
By Michael Hoffman - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Apr 28, 2008 6:43:01 EDT

More airmen today are overweight than fit, according to Air Force statistics, and nearly 12 percent are clinically obese.

Yet despite a four-year-old “fit to fight” program designed to get airmen into better physical shape, the Air Force has made almost no progress in improving fitness servicewide. Indeed, the obesity rate among airmen today is more than double what it was in 1995.

Service officials added fitness scores to enlisted performance reports a year ago.

But a new weight-reduction program now being implemented at Air Force Materiel Command bases — that includes punitive measures for those who fail to improve — may pave the way for a more stringent set of requirements throughout the service.

Acting on their own, AFMC officials are forging a series of instructive and punitive measures, including possible involuntary separations for airmen who fail to get their weight under control. Within 90 days of drawing a command’s attention, punitive action can be taken against any airman who “fails to progress or does not comply with directed intervention programs,” AFMC Vice Commander Lt. Gen. Terry Gabreski said in a statement.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/04/airforce_fat_AF_042808w/

[Red Zelda]

1. Too many government welfare checks

for soldier-boy-heroes. Hey, get a real fucking job.

[rakeeb]

4. wow.......would you also say that to actual welfare recipients?

Not just the folks in uniform putting in 12 to 18 hour shifts, separated from their families for 15 months at a time?

[Clear Blue Sky]

2. Mirrors the general population...

[rakeeb]

3. 55% isn't surprising, if you consider the fact that an 18 yr old

6 ft tall male who weighs over 189 because he is broader than a medium build or lifts weights a few times a week is "overweight"...

12% clinically obese is just beyond the pale.