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By Matthew Rees

Food and Health Fact #176:

Obesity, Oxberger, and the U.S. military

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In the mischievous 1981 movie “Stripes,” characters played by Bill Murray and the late Harold Ramis enlist in the U.S. Army after falling on hard times. When they and the other recruits meet and introduce themselves before starting basic training, one of them, named Dewey “Ox” Oxberger, stands out from the rest: he’s extremely overweight. Played by the late John Candy, Oxberger was entertaining throughout the film – with the unspoken gag being that someone with obesity wouldn’t be serving in the military.

Times have changed.

A Department of Defense report issued last year revealed that a remarkable 18 percent of soldiers were obese in 2020. The report did not dwell on how this impacts military readiness, but other studies have done so. One found that obese active-duty soldiers are 33 percent more likely to experience muscoskeletal injury. Another noted that overweight and obese military personnel have 658,000 lost workdays annually, costing the Pentagon $103 million. And the Pentagon devotes $1.5 billion to health care for active duty soldiers, veterans, and their families.

“Obesity continues to have an astronomical impact on the US Army and the military in general,” writes the University of Kentucky’s Sara Police in The Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.“

What’s curious about 18 percent of soldiers being obese is that I assume few (if any) of these soldiers were obese when they joined the military. The different branches of the military have weight standards that must be met to enlist (see the Army’s here). And many potential recruits are disqualified because they can’t meet these standards. A recent report by the U.S. Department of Defense pointed out that 77 percent of Americans ages 17 to 24 would be ineligible to serve in the military. There were several reasons why, but one stood out from the rest: being overweight.

The disqualification stands to reason: soldiers must able to carry out a range of physically demanding tasks (see a few minutes in Army basic training here), which is why every branch of the military administers regular fitness tests (the Army’s is here and the Navy’s is here).

So either the eligibility standards are being lowered (or ignored) – or soldiers are gaining lots of weight while on active duty. I don’t know which one it is (and I suspect it’s a bit of both), but they’re equally problematic.

A study published in 2019 looked at the role drill sergeants could play in promoting better health and nutrition among their troops. Alas, the study found that the drill sergeants lacked knowledge about nutrition, didn’t follow basic rules about eating healthy, and didn’t see dietary training of troops as their responsibility.

Obesity in the military is emblematic of the way in which weight gain has become woven into American culture – even the parts where one would just assume healthy weights would be the standard.While there are no easy remedies, simply offering the troops healthier food, and less fast food, would be a start.

“Most U.S. military bases around the world play host to several big fast food conglomerates such as Burger King, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Baskin Robins, Subway, and the occasional Popeye’s,” according to an article published by the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts.

In “Stripes,” Dewey Oxberger says he’s joined the Army to “lose a few pounds.” And he pledges that in 6-8 weeks he will become a “lean, mean, fightin’ machine.” That was the profile of America’s troops 40 years ago – and it still is (mostly) today.

But absent reform in the food troops are served, and what they’re taught about health and nutrition, most of them may be anything but “lean” 40 years from today.