Group of retired military brass says a quarter of young Americans are "too fat to fight."
Mission: Readiness, an organization of retired senior military leaders, has issued a scathing report that charges that more than a quarter of military-age Americans are too overweight to meet service standards. The group is asking Congress to take immediate steps to remove junk food and high-calorie beverages from schools, charging that these products are major contributors to the problem.
The report, Too Fat to Fight, is designed to echo past military excursions into the field of school nutrition, specifically the expressed concerns following World War II that many recruits had to be turned away from service due to poor nutrition, a charge that helped win passage of the National School Lunch Act in 1946.
The report can be downloaded at www.missionreadiness.org.