Nearly 68% of the country’s reserve forces are overweight, according to a new report by the American Security Project (ASP). Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth took to X to express his thoughts, sharing:
"Completely unacceptable. This is what happens when standards are IGNORED – and this is what we are changing. REAL fitness & weight standards are here. We will be FIT, not FAT.”
American Family News spoke to retired Navy Medical Service Corps officer Lt. Ted Macie, a whistleblower who once exposed the notable rise in incidents of myocarditis, pulmonary embolism, ovarian dysfunction, and more in the military following the Department of Defense’s (DoD) now-rescinded 2021 COVID-19 shot mandate.
Macie admits not being surprised by ASP’s findings, and he believes Hegseth is rightfully concerned.
“In some units,” Macie argues, “there is a lack of people willing to call each other out and hold each other accountable. This didn’t happen overnight, but it was accelerated when the COVID-19 protocols went in place.”
At the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, he recalls, the Navy’s Physical Readiness Test (PRT) was skipped for an entire year and occurred less frequently in the years to follow. “Standards weren’t being enforced during this time,” Macie discloses.
On top of that, service members have been allowed to seek “easier options” to running, including cycling and elliptical machine options, for example. “Some even get waivers for claiming an injury that may or may not even exist,” he adds.
Interestingly, Macie also pointed out that tens of thousands of service members involuntarily, or voluntarily, separated from military service for lawfully refusing the COVID-19 shot, but questions how many others were booted for failing to meet physical readiness standards during this same time frame.
“People showed their true colors [during that time],” he shares. “Some of the military’s best were forced out over an illegal shot, while those unfit to meet the physical demands of readiness were allowed to stay in.”
Spike in obesity
The retired medical officer laments that “the culture [in the military] has changed,” pointing to “wokeness and lack of accountability” that has been allowed through the years – and has resulted, over the course of time, in a drastic lowering of standards.
“[Those standards have] been sliding for years – and its clearly evident in the heightened level of obesity in today’s military,” he notes.
For example, when an active service member is seen on or off base by a military or civilian provider, the Defense Medical Epidemiology Database (DMED) is used to maintain a depository of all diagnoses – recorded using International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes. In cases concerning service members being overweight or obese, the ICD code is E66. (See DMED chart documenting E66 cases from 2016-2023)
Across all branches of the service, in the four years leading up to the pandemic (2016-2019), cases of service members being overweight and obese averaged 13,863 per year. Over the next four-year period (2020-2023), that average jumped to 21,969 – and data reflected a 190% increase in cases within that time span, nearly tripling from 12,249 to 35,532.
Fitness is more than just muscle
AFN also spoke to Lt. Col. Darin Gaub (USA-Ret.) who, like Macie, has persistently warned about the fitness of America's military. The former UH-60 Blackhawk pilot and battalion commander says this not only includes warnings about “new recruits coming in out of shape, but also the reduction in standards across the force.”
According to Gaub, the lack of adherence to basic fitness standards “causes significant readiness concerns, [and] it affects the ability to perform in combat, to train in the field, and even to maximize effectiveness in garrison environments.”
And Gaub emphasizes that fitness is more than just survival on a battlefield. "It's also about maximizing our ability to train the force in field environments,” he shares, adding that it also means service members can maintain mental acuity to analyze, strategize, and make key decisions.
In addition, there are long-term benefits. “Maintaining health standards in the military means a force of veterans entering the civilian world healthy and less of a drain on Veterans Affairs (VA) medical resources,” Gaub concludes.
