# Obesity and the draft in WW2 **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 25, 2010, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-and-the-draft-in-ww2/565378 "2010-12-25T21:30:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-and-the-draft-in-ww2/565378/21 "2010-12-27T10:10:09Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Not to hijack the OP, but that’s a horrible idea. The last thing the military wants is a bunch of conscripts. They don’t have any problem meeting their recruitment goals now (except for specialists like translators), and besides it’s not their job to provide American youth with job skills, that’s the school system’s job. The military’s only job is to fight wars. And a non-military draft (where most conscripts ended up working in old age homes or building houses for the poor) would likely be unconstitutional. Well, the populace of the US [and even the world] seem to think that we need a kinder gentler military that save puppies and kitties, do disaster response and pretty much everything except carpet bombing targets in a war zone … and it seems that the countries with universal service manage to muddle along just fine. I should research how many jobs in the military are actually done by civilian contractees … for a start those could be done by actual military members again. And as to the constitutionality, the constitution was provided with the ability to be modified, so that little argument can be rendered moot. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-and-the-draft-in-ww2/565378/22 "2010-12-27T10:18:32Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Plus they had to have one fat guy in each squad, to make up the right quotas for dramatic convention to be satisfied. > > Also a black guy, a genius, a skinny “mama’s boy”, and a kid from Brooklyn. Plus the quiet religious guy who ends up going nuts. ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-and-the-draft-in-ww2/565378/23 "2010-12-27T21:12:11Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > I’ll try to find a cite, but the SSS did a study and apparently if a draft were conducted today under present rules and enlistment standards less than 25% of draft-age men would even be able to meet those standards; the rest would all need to be deferred (or standards drastically lowered). Oops, my bad. I’m 4-F. Not because I’m fat though, but because I’m screwy in the head. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-and-the-draft-in-ww2/565378/24 "2010-12-27T22:10:01Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Also a black guy, a genius, a skinny “mama’s boy”, and a kid from Brooklyn. The army was segregated in WWII. You’re gonna have to wait for Korea to have that black guy. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-and-the-draft-in-ww2/565378/25 "2010-12-27T23:16:12Z")
> [@cornflakes](#): > > This was fifty years before the Americans With Disabilities Act. I’d guess that anyone deemed unfit for service would have to explain themselves unless their disability was the first thing that people noticed. I think that is correct. People home on furlough were required to wear their military uniform outside the house and so anyone of draft age and not obviously handicapped was looked on very suspiciously and were always being asked why they were not drafted. There were some deferments for being in important civilian jobs, but not many. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2010, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-and-the-draft-in-ww2/565378/26 "2010-12-28T01:12:06Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > The army was segregated in WWII. You’re gonna have to wait for Korea to have that black guy. Yeah, in WWII it would be a Jewish guy. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2010, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-and-the-draft-in-ww2/565378/27 "2010-12-28T01:57:42Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > People home on furlough were required to wear their military uniform outside the house… Are you sure about that? That certainly wasn’t the case in the 1960’s. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2010, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-and-the-draft-in-ww2/565378/28 "2010-12-28T02:45:49Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > I think that is correct. People home on furlough were required to wear their military uniform outside the house and so anyone of draft age and not obviously handicapped was looked on very suspiciously and were always being asked why they were not drafted. There were some deferments for being in important civilian jobs, but not many. From a _Yank_ magazine in 1944/45 I read an article about men who weren’t in uniform on the home front. The article featured a photo of each man profiled and a short interview on why he wasn’t in uniform. Some of the men had actually served, at least one had a civilian job that was considered vital to the war effort, and another was 4-F because he was deaf in one ear. Some of the guys in the article, the 4-F guy was one of them, carried around his papers in case someone got onto him about the reason he wasn’t in the armed forces. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-and-the-draft-in-ww2/565378/29 "2010-12-28T17:56:22Z")
[Obesity wasn’t the big problem in World War II.](http://wcfcourier.com/news/local/651c7a53-8e73-559d-b1e0-bdc9968beb62.html) > [@](#): > > The school lunch program was established during World War II after young draftees were revealed to have malnutrition-related health problems. At least 40 percent of rejected recruits were turned away on the basis of poor nutrition. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-and-the-draft-in-ww2/565378/30 "2010-12-28T18:05:43Z")
Based on my father’s accounts, in the pre-war years the Great Depression had left many young men unemployed or under-employed. That was an ordinary circumstance for the time. But once the US jumped into the war, a young man without gainful employment would have been considered shiftless since the military was taking almost anyone. He was given a college deferment until 1943, and when he graduated was commissioned as an officer, but he had to work as a park ranger until 1944 when he was actually called up. He also mentioned that the draft was also a means of organizing. Following Pearl Harbor the military was flooded with more volunteers than they could take in all at once. Local draft boards could schedule the inductions to meet the militaries needs. Apparently there were young men who did not want to serve though. People’s ideas of hardship and vital civilian jobs varied. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2010, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-and-the-draft-in-ww2/565378/31 "2010-12-28T18:50:49Z")
My dad received a medical discharge from the Cavalry shortly before the US entered the war (after a bout of double pneumonia). He went to work in the defense industry and wound up supervising a crew of “Rosie the Riviter” types, churning out airplane wings. (Being in charge of a crew of lonely women must have been an ideal way for a young man to spend the war.) I never heard him say anything about being questioned or resented for not being in uniform, but then again he always seemed a bit reticent on the subject of the war years, so maybe he _was_ a little embarrassed about it. /hijack ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-and-the-draft-in-ww2/565378/32 "2010-12-29T02:29:08Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > [Obesity wasn’t the big problem in World War II.](http://wcfcourier.com/news/local/651c7a53-8e73-559d-b1e0-bdc9968beb62.html) > > > [@](#): > > > > The school lunch program was established during World War II after young draftees were revealed to have malnutrition-related health problems. At least 40 percent of rejected recruits were turned away on the basis of poor nutrition. Seconded! Most of is have no idea what it was like during the Thirties. My father and his four brothers fought in WWII. My father never ate mustard as an adult because he ate too many mustard sandwiches when he was a kid. He joined the Junior ROTC in high school so that he could get two free changes of clothing and joined the Army (there was a three month waiting list) for the food, clothing and money that he could send home to his mom. His next younger brother was held in awe when he got the paper route for the local army fort. Fifty years later, they still told stories about how he would deliver papers for Company A mess, then Companies B through E and would still get home in time to eat. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-and-the-draft-in-ww2/565378/33 "2010-12-29T03:44:14Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Are you sure about that? That certainly wasn’t the case in the 1960’s. Yep, there was an off-duty uniforms that soldiers (& sailors?) were required to wear. Even a WAC needed to get permission from her CO to wear a bridemaid or _wedding dress_ instead of her dress uniform. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2010, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-and-the-draft-in-ww2/565378/34 "2010-12-29T15:44:34Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > Yeah, in WWII it would be a Jewish guy. It was also a requirment that every infantry squad had a bloke called Kowalski. Apparently if it didn’t have one then somebody had to change their name. Seargants were routinly trained in wisecracking and cigar smoking. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-and-the-draft-in-ww2/565378/35 "2010-12-31T06:23:24Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Well, the populace of the US [and even the world] seem to think that we need a kinder gentler military that save puppies and kitties, do disaster response and pretty much everything except carpet bombing targets in a war zone … and it seems that the countries with universal service manage to muddle along just fine. > > I should research how many jobs in the military are actually done by civilian contractees … for a start those could be done by actual military members again. And as to the constitutionality, the constitution was provided with the ability to be modified, so that little argument can be rendered moot. Do not you know how difficult it is to pass an amendment? It’s got to get through Congress and the State legislatures. And not with a simple majority either–it has a higher level than even the filibuster proof majority in the Senate. So, no, the Constituionality isn’t moot. Plus I’ll note that nearly half the country is register for Selective Service, and you don’t see anyone taking advantage of that. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2011, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-and-the-draft-in-ww2/565378/36 "2011-01-01T12:57:35Z")
To be in the prime of life in the 1940s you had to have grown up in the Depression, when many people could not afford enough to eat, never mind excess of food. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2011, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-and-the-draft-in-ww2/565378/37 "2011-01-02T22:58:25Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > Were 4-Fs subjected to the same treatment? Just an anecdote but my father used to tell me about a Gold Star Mother in the neighborhood who used to yell at him and his friends accusing them of being cowards. They were all around 14-16 years old. My father dropped out of high school and joined the Marines in 1945 but was in Boot Camp when the war ended. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2011, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-and-the-draft-in-ww2/565378/38 "2011-01-02T23:03:18Z")
How could we be forgetting the guy from a Plains State that everyone calls Cowboy? Our squad is practically a platoon already! ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2011, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-and-the-draft-in-ww2/565378/39 "2011-01-02T23:08:20Z")
My father was deferred due to hardship: he had five sisters and a brother (all but one younger than he) and his father had a bad heart. He ran a gas station during the war as well as farming and supported the whole family of 9. And according to my mom (who was just dating him at that time) some people gave him shit about why he wasn’t in the service, and he never said a word to them, just took the abuse and went on wiping their windshields and pumping their gas. She thought he felt guilty about not serving, and I reckon he probably did. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2011, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-and-the-draft-in-ww2/565378/40 "2011-01-02T23:46:36Z")
It was a totally different world back then. I wish I could find this article I read that summed it up perfectly. There is a widening gap between the military and the rest of the populace. Less than 3% of the population is or has served in the military. Due to cost cutting consolidation a large percentage of the military can be found in 5 states. Back then a much larger percentage were in. Everyone on of my Uncles in my father’s generation was in the military. In my generation which includes god knows how many cousins of various levels, only a handful have served. And besides me none of my immediate family have been in. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-and-the-draft-in-ww2/565378.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-and-the-draft-in-ww2/565378.md?page=3)