Heavy units ordered to lighten up
On a sunny morning at a US Army base in South Carolina, 60 men and women line up on a flagstone path. The men all have crew cuts, the women wear their hair in tight buns, and they all have the word ‘‘ARMY’’ emblazoned in yellow across their black T-shirts.
Yet there is something different about them compared with the other recruits marching around Fort Jackson. All would once have been rejected by the army for being overweight.
‘‘We are going to do a quick warmup lap,’’ bellows a drill sergeant. ‘‘Don’t sprint your little hearts out. We are just doing a light jog. Clear?’’
‘‘Yes, drill sergeant,’’ the recruits shout back. Then they set off, not too fast, around a running track.
They are trainees in a pilot programme begun by the army in the face of recruiting challenges that left it 15,000 short of its target of 60,000 new soldiers last year.
According to the army, 70% of the US population between the ages of 18 and 24 are not eligible to join because of weight or other issues. According to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, four out of 10 Americans are obese.
The future soldier preparatory course takes recruits who are up to 6% above the army’s usual weight limit for their age, gender and size, and subjects them to workouts and nutritional courses. They have up to 90 days to get into shape for basic training.
Everyone agrees that this requires a more sensitive approach to the business of making soldiers out of civilians.
‘‘It’s a chance to step back from that very strong drill sergeant character and slide into a coaching, mentoring role,’’ says Drill Sergeant Austin Travous as his colleague, Drill Sergeant Christopher Dennis, oversees the warmup exercises. The drill sergeants teach ‘‘dynamic warmups and dynamic cooldowns’’, as well as yoga.
Among the recruits is Jacob Krabbe, 24. He says he always wanted to join the military, but in adulthood ‘‘I lost control of my diet’’. At home in Bluefield, West Virginia, there were many fast food outlets, and ‘‘getting hold of healthy food was difficult’’.
After he got married and had two children, Krabbe had a healthier diet of home-cooked meals. His wife told him: ‘‘Every time you walk past an army recruiting station, your eyes light up.’’ But he was 155kg.
Krabbe lost 20kg, got a place on the course, and is now down to 123kg. ‘‘My wife is going to be mad at me because I have got to get all new clothes,’’ he said.
Every Thursday, the recruits submit to a ‘‘tape test’’ to see if they are within 2% of the body fat threshold for basic training. ‘‘They are nerve-racking but you look forward to it,’’ Krabbe says of the tests, which measure how much fat is around the midriff.
The trainees are also screened for eating disorders. As they pass through the canteen, Sergeant Margaret Tucker, a holistic health and fitness instructor, casts an eye over their plates.
‘‘I look to see that they have their protein options, fruits and vegetables. I make sure they have carbohydrates, which they need not just for the physical part but for cognition – brain function and development,’’ she says.
Tucker tells trainees why they should avoid some of the diets they see on social media. There was one trainee, she recalls, who wanted to eat nothing but fruit to lose weight, but was stopped.
Another ‘‘told me he did not eat fruit and vegetables at all’’, or certain foods because of their texture. ‘‘I have expanded his taste buds beyond meat and potatoes.’’
The army launched the course last year. It includes a parallel academic offering in English and maths. ‘‘The graduation rate for both is 97%,’’ says Lieutenant Colonel Larry Stewart, whose battalion began supervising the courses when the programme was expanded.
Overall, 2547 recruits have graduated from the academic course, and 1195 have passed through the fitness and nutrition course and moved on to basic combat training, Stewart says.
The trainees learn soldiering skills, Travous says, ‘‘but we are also giving them information on how to live a healthier life’’.