
<p>Of the plethora of problems the Biden administration brought with it, military recruitment has been one major concern that started making headlines last year. The government’s approach to this challenge—drop the standards. </p>



<p>For the U.S. Air Force, this means adding extra pounds as it is changing its weight restrictions to allow obese people sign up for military service.</p>



<p>Military news sources reported last week that the Air Force is raising its maximum body fat levels for recruits in an effort to beef up its strength in numbers of service members. </p>



<p>The maximum permissible body fat for recruits until now was 20% body fat for males and 28% body fat for females. </p>



<p>With the updated limits on weight, male recruits with up to 26% body fat and women recruits with up to 36% body fat will be eligible to join the Air Force.</p>



<p>While the weight limits for recruitment have been modified to allow more heavy-set people to join the Air Force, they will still need to meet the same fitness standards and height-to-weight ratio as all other serving members of the force.</p>



<p>Air Force Recruiting Service spokesperson Leslie Brown was cited by Military.com denying that raising weight limits meant the force was dropping its standards. In his words:</p>



<p><em>“I can&#8217;t stress enough: We are not lowering our standards, but rather we are aligning our standards with the overall DoD policy.”</em></p>



<p>News sources, however, have pointed out that changing the body fat criteria for recruits shows the military’s struggle to meet its recruitment goals and keep its obese service members. Per the CDC data, 19% of all military personnel in 2020 were obese.</p>



<p>In 2023, this proportion has gone up, and 25% of military members now have BMI levels that are considered obese.</p>



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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Big problem in the military! Almost 25% of military members now have BMI levels considered OBESE. This is HUGE problem for health and military readiness!<br>This is on top of only about 30% of military-age young Americans meeting requirements for entry!<a href="https://t.co/7fI1nCMbLs">https://t.co/7fI1nCMbLs</a></p>&mdash; Elvin Unleashed (@Elvin_Unleashed) <a href="https://twitter.com/Elvin_Unleashed/status/1642874933226217474?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 3, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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<p>While all military branches have seen a notable drop in recruitment over the past two years, the Air Force expects to miss its active-duty recruiting goal this year by 10 percent. Allowing more body fat appears to be out of concern that not enough fit people will be signing up to serve the force in 2023, hence loosening the standards.</p>



<p>Retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel Chuck DeVore has blamed “President Joe Biden’s disastrous anti-leadership” for the “total freefall” in military recruitment. Writing in <em>The Federalist </em>(June 2022), he slammed the Biden administration for making the U.S. Army lower its standards and allowing certain things that “will result in a less capable force with troublesome discipline issues.”</p>



<p>Last month, Adam Kredo of The Washington Free Beacon reported on a panel of military veterans who told Congress in a hearing that the Pentagon’s focus on woke priorities has led to a “once-in-a-generation military recruitment crisis.”</p>

US Air Force Lowers Standards, Allows Obese Recruits
