# So what would happen if we had a military draft today with so many fat people around? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 8, 2017, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-happen-if-we-had-a-military-draft-today-with-so-many-fat-people-around/784044 "2017-04-08T05:44:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2017, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-happen-if-we-had-a-military-draft-today-with-so-many-fat-people-around/784044/41 "2017-04-09T19:33:49Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > What are they considering “draft age”? I have no doubt that many American men are overweight (I certainly am) but I suspect men in the prime drafting ages (let’s say 18 to 22) are less likely to be overweight than the average man. ISTR that the remarkably small percentage of draft-aged men who met the military’s standards wasn’t strictly a physical fitness related thing. It could be things like not having a high school degree, having a weed smoking misdemeanor on your record or other criminal activity, or any number of health-related things that they don’t want. We’ve already seen that they relax a lot of that stuff as well as the age limits when they need people (as recently as 2008-2009, people as old as 42 were eligible to enlist). Why would we think that if things were dire enough to need a draft, that they’d quibble about high school degrees, weed misdemeanors, petty theft, 5-10 extra BMI points, etc… ? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2017, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-happen-if-we-had-a-military-draft-today-with-so-many-fat-people-around/784044/42 "2017-04-09T20:03:00Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I pretty sure that was all that was required back then. I said it was easy. For what it is walk, it is a fast walk, walking speed on average is closer to 20 minutes for a mile. > Really for the Navy? That is a significantly higher rate of speed. Well, I did say “pretty much” walking speed. 15 minutes a mile is my brisk walk speed. That’s amazing. I know you’re making the point that it’s easy, but that is surprisingly easy for the military. I think the slowest kid in high school beat that time for the mile for the presidential fitness test. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2017, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-happen-if-we-had-a-military-draft-today-with-so-many-fat-people-around/784044/43 "2017-04-09T20:56:34Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Well, I did say “pretty much” walking speed. 15 minutes a mile is my brisk walk speed. That’s amazing. I know you’re making the point that it’s easy, but that is surprisingly easy for the military. I think the slowest kid in high school beat that time for the mile for the presidential fitness test. But as I mentioned above, us Navy guys probably do the least walking. We live and eat in our ride. On a busy day on a Carrier, 3 miles would be a lot of walking and there was almost no running or jogging. On a destroyer it would be weird to walk close to that much. ---
**Author:** ![SloppyJoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7cd45c/32.png) [@SloppyJoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SloppyJoes)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2017, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-happen-if-we-had-a-military-draft-today-with-so-many-fat-people-around/784044/44 "2017-04-09T21:03:09Z")
The military does have training, fitness regime programs for a reason, you know. If they didn’t pass, they would be relegated to basic. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2017, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-happen-if-we-had-a-military-draft-today-with-so-many-fat-people-around/784044/45 "2017-04-09T21:20:45Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Where did you find the 13 minute part? I found a specific counter example on [http://www.military.com/military-fitness/navy-fitness-requirements/navy-basic-training-pft](http://www.military.com/military-fitness/navy-fitness-requirements/navy-basic-training-pft) > My bolding/italics above My son is in the process of joining the Navy. That’s the number the recruiter quoted. \ ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2017, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-happen-if-we-had-a-military-draft-today-with-so-many-fat-people-around/784044/46 "2017-04-09T21:38:38Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > My son is in the process of joining the Navy. That’s the number the recruiter quoted. \ Well that explains it, recruiters are often wrong about a lot. Sometimes willfully as I experienced. ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2017, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-happen-if-we-had-a-military-draft-today-with-so-many-fat-people-around/784044/47 "2017-04-10T00:50:03Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > My son is in the process of joining the Navy. That’s the number the recruiter quoted. \ Without digging I am betting that’s the number he needs to achieve to be eligible to ship off to initial entry training. Standards to join and standards you have to meet once in are not always the same. That sounds like a fit enough we can handle the rest once you are ours standard. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2017, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-happen-if-we-had-a-military-draft-today-with-so-many-fat-people-around/784044/48 "2017-04-10T01:04:09Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > But as I mentioned above, us Navy guys probably do the least walking. We live and eat in our ride. On a busy day on a Carrier, 3 miles would be a lot of walking and there was almost no running or jogging. On a destroyer it would be weird to walk close to that much. Sure, I still expected the requirements to be a little higher, but that’s probably because I’ve seen the requirements for the other services, and the times were definitely more “competitive.” But I would expect anyone with any reasonable level of fitness to be able to hit a 10 minute mile, much less 15 minute mile. Anyhow, no matter. I’m just surprised. Like you said, in the scheme of things and the requirements of duty, it seems not to be an important measurement. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2017, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-happen-if-we-had-a-military-draft-today-with-so-many-fat-people-around/784044/49 "2017-04-10T01:10:45Z")
Do [these numbers here](https://www.navy.com/navy-life/life-as-a-sailor/fitness#physical-training) mean anything? ---
**Author:** ![skdo23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@skdo23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skdo23)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2017, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-happen-if-we-had-a-military-draft-today-with-so-many-fat-people-around/784044/50 "2017-04-10T04:47:47Z")
So what would happen if we had a military draft today with so many fat people around? The thin ones doing push-ups would be outnumbered by the fat ones who get to stand and watch while eating jelly donuts. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-would-happen-if-we-had-a-military-draft-today-with-so-many-fat-people-around/784044.md?page=2)