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Study: 90% of Pittsburgh's Young Adults Unfit for Military Service


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[quote][size="4"][u][b]Study: 90% of Pittsburgh's Young Adults Unfit for Military Service [/b]
By Carl Prine
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
May 13, 2011 [/u][/size]

[b]Pittsburgh's young adults are so physically unfit and uneducated that up to 90 percent of them can't get into the military,[/b] according to a scathing report to be released today by a consortium of 200 top retired military officers and several nonprofits.

The "Unable to Serve" study found that about 25,000 of the city's young men and women between the ages of 18 and 24 are [b]dogged by obesity, asthma and other health issues, poor academic performance, criminal records, drug addiction and eyesight so poor[/b] that they couldn't enter the military even if they wanted to do so.

Although Pentagon studies show similar problems nationwide bar about 75 percent of America's young adults from enlistment, the report contends Pittsburgh's problems are noticeably worse. [b]The city's crime rate is higher than much of the rest of the nation,[/b] the report notes, and [b]most high school students here fail to graduate on time[/b].

When they do graduate in four years, the report said, [b]they often flunk military entrance exams that test basic math, logic and language skills.[/b]

The solution? High-quality state programs designed to educate at-risk nursery school children who otherwise might become worthless to an all-volunteer military by the time they reach adulthood, the report says.

"From my perspective, I want to talk about the fitness of these kids," said retired Air Force Col. Edmund Effort, 61, a dentist who screens local nominees for the Air Force Academy. "Are they physically and mentally fit to serve in our military?"

Effort is slated to speak today when the report is presented at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Oakland. The Pennsylvania chapter of the Washington-based "Mission: Readiness" organization wrote the report. Pennsylvania's chapter includes 10 retired generals or admirals and numerous former officers and senior enlisted personnel.

Analysis of military testing data by the Washington-based nonprofit The Education Trust shows that one out of every five Pennsylvania high school grads who take the military test flunks it. For black and Hispanic graduates, the failure rate doubles.

[b]In Pittsburgh[/b] city schools, [b]48 percent of 11th-graders in 2009 failed to score above basic levels in reading[/b] and [b]57 percent scored below basic levels in math[/b].[/quote]

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_736843.html#ixzz1MHTWIz8d
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[quote name='Bunghole' timestamp='1305380092' post='992642']
Its crazy how fat we as a nation are getting. Its like we're grazing cattle, being herded into fat camp by the military/industrial/economical elite. Oh, wait.
[/quote]
It's kind of like a multiplier effect. Lazy people surrond themselves with more lazy people and it makes them feel okay about being lazy.

We need more self-motivation in this country. More incentive to be fit. It's crazy that I can see ladies my age with fat rolls that would likely fall down past their cooters. It shouldn't be like that.
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[quote name='JC' timestamp='1305418886' post='992705']
It's kind of like a multiplier effect. Lazy people surrond themselves with more lazy people and it makes them feel okay about being lazy.

We need more self-motivation in this country. More incentive to be fit. It's crazy that I can see ladies my age with fat rolls that would likely fall down past their cooters. It shouldn't be like that.
[/quote]

Or maybe it's partly because one of the things America does very well is produce foodstuff. I think other countries would like to have our abilities in churning out lots of food. I'm sure we supply a bulk of the world's food with our farming and shit. We are a nation of retail and food production/consumption.
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  • 4 weeks later...
[quote name='JC' timestamp='1305418886' post='992705']
It's kind of like a multiplier effect. Lazy people surrond themselves with more lazy people and it makes them feel okay about being lazy.

We need more self-motivation in this country. More incentive to be fit. It's crazy that I can see ladies my age with fat rolls that would likely fall down past their cooters. It shouldn't be like that.
[/quote]
Awesome idea. They should give a tax break for anyone with a body fat % less then 20%.
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[quote name='JC' timestamp='1305418886' post='992705']
It's kind of like a multiplier effect. Lazy people surrond themselves with more lazy people and it makes them feel okay about being lazy.

We need more self-motivation in this country. More incentive to be fit. It's crazy that I can see ladies my age with fat rolls that would likely fall down past their cooters. It shouldn't be like that.
[/quote]


There's no shortage of excessive overweight people for the normal overweight people to point at and justify it.

I bet there's a bunch of people that are close to 80-100 pounds overweight and truly think they could stand to lose 10 pounds to get back to where they should be. Just because they are not in the extreme.
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[quote name='sois' timestamp='1305422100' post='992709']
Or maybe it's partly because one of the things America does very well is produce foodstuff. I think other countries would like to have our abilities in churning out lots of food. I'm sure we supply a bulk of the world's food with our farming and shit. We are a nation of retail and food production/consumption.
[/quote]

True. We are good at producing it and selling it.

What people consider normal meals is crazy. It's easy and fast.
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