‘Future Soldiers’

Many US citizens who want to join the Armed Services are too overweight or too poorly educated to qualify. (Eighth-grade level math and reading skills are required.) To meet its recruiting goals, in 2022 the Army created the “Future Soldiers Preparatory Course” –90 days at a training base to get in shape and cram for the written test.

The New Yorker’s war correspondent Dexter Filkins described the program at Fort Jackson in a 2/10 piece about our nation’s overall readiness. An officer explained to him that many applicants “have never eaten healthy foods or exercised regularly in their lives –that’s just the reality of the America we’re dealing with.” To become a Future Soldier, applicants have to be within 10 percent of certain body-fat levels, Filkins reported. The regimen consists of three exercise sessions/day and three healthy meals, with no access to snacks. Those who get to within two percent of their goal advance to basic training, They then have to lose the excess weight within a year and keep it off throughout their careers.

Staying fit may be challenging, because the food served at US Army bases has been getting steadily less nutritious (and less available) in recent years. “The Army is repurposing more than half of the money it collects from junior enlisted soldiers for food,” according to a shocking piece by Steve Beynon on Military.com,

”The money is collected in what amounts to a tax on troops taken from their Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS) payments, roughly $460 per month that is automatically deducted from the paychecks of service members who live in barracks and is intended to help cover food costs. For junior enlisted troops who earn about $30,000 annually, the cost can be consequential.

“2024 financial records provided by the service from 11 of the Army’s largest bases show that more than $151 million of $225 million collected from soldiers was not spent on food. Given that the Army operates 104 garrisons, the true amount of unspent funds is likely far higher.”

Beynon questioned the Army public affairs office and was told that the soldiers’ BAS money not spent food is “returned to the big pool of Army funds, and it’s used someplace else.”

Who is rewarded for kicking back to the Army the soldiers’ Basic Allowance for Subsistence? Beynon doesn’t speculate. Just the facts, ma’am:

At Fort Stewart, Georgia, “soldiers contributed $17 million, but the base spent just $2.1 million –redirecting 87% of the funds. Schofield Barracks in Hawaii collected $14.5 million but used only $5.3 million, meaning 63% of the money was used elsewhere.

“It’s unclear what specifically the additional funds taken from soldiers are being spent on, but they do not appear to be going toward feeding soldiers. Major expenses such as dining hall infrastructure and food service worker salaries come from separate funding sources and, when pressed repeatedly by Military.com, Army officials declined to provide additional financial data…

“The Army has a nutrition policy on what it is supposed to feed soldiers, though it’s rarely followed and in some cases outright ignored. The service has invested in so-called kiosks, which are cheap alternatives to major dining facilities. Instead of cooked meals, soldiers have access to grab-and-go snacks and prepackaged sandwiches akin to the quality of prepared meals at a gas station.

“Military.com reviewed the menus at those kiosks and found that it’s virtually impossible for soldiers to stay within healthy nutrition guidelines, with most offerings being heavy in sugar and low in protein. The service’s previous top enlisted leader, Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston, sought to heavily invest in healthy foods, seeking to feed soldiers more like professional athletes and dramatically expand meal options to include fresh protein shakes. But those efforts never came to fruition after getting snagged in bureaucratic difficulties.

“Army officials declined to answer detailed, or even broad, questions about how so much money is diverted and how budgets for food are decided. The service also declined to make any senior officials available on the record for interviews.

“Reports from service members frequently describe undercooked meat, unseasoned meals, a lack of fresh ingredients, and unhealthy menu options. The substandard, and sometimes dangerous, food in turn leads to fewer soldiers using the facilities –a downward spiral that results in even less money being spent on meals.

“The issue is not new. In 2020, Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, who has since left Congress, pressed then-Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy on the matter during a budget hearing, saying the Army is either ‘wasting half the food, or the money is not being spent on the soldiers’ food and it’s being spent on something it’s not appropriated for.’ However, there was seemingly no follow-up to that inquiry, which came just before the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Military.com is a very informative site, and the people running it are not in thrall to the brass.

Take Two

As I was about to send this piece to the AVA on 2/25/25, Steve Beynon posted a piece on Military.com that is less glowing about the “Future Soldiers” program than Filkins’s in the New Yorker. Extensive excerpts follow, with a key fact boldfaced.

“The Army has been recruiting applicants who far exceed its body fat standards and not providing them the necessary medical services as they try to shed the weight and come into compliance, according to a new Defense Department inspector general report.

“The Army’s Future Soldier Preparatory Course was designed to expand enlistment eligibility for those who historically struggled to meet either academic or physical requirements. Under the fitness track, recruits get 90 days to slim down to Army standards; if they fail to do so, their military career is over before it begins.

The fitness track of the preparatory course allows applicants who are as much as 8% above Army body fat standards to enlist… But the inspector general found that 14% of 1,100 trainees between February and May 2024 far exceeded even those expanded limits.

“The news comes after years of high praise for the courses across the senior ranks and national security experts for turning around a recruiting slump.

“According to the report, trainees have been allowed to join at up to 19% above the standard -- meaning some male recruits may have had body fat percentages as high as 45% and female recruits reaching 55%, levels that would likely be considered morbidly obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The service declined to comment on questions regarding how applicants so severely overweight are making it through initial screening processes.

Gen. Gary Brito, head of Army Training and Doctrine Command, or TRADOC, who ultimately oversees the course, enacted a policy to accept trainees at 10% above the body fat standard, meaning a recruit could enlist and show up to the preparatory course more overweight than was allowed. [Filkins failed to note Gen. Brito’s maneuver.]

“Service officials have not fielded enough dieticians or medical personnel, the inspector general found.

“Trainees ‘did not consistently receive required medical services,’ with incomplete medical clearances before moving on to basic training or not receiving assessments for metabolic health throughout the prep course as required by Army policy, according to the report…

“Last year, the service hit its recruiting goal of 55,300 new active-duty troops, an achievement largely attributable to the prep courses. Nearly one-quarter of new enlistees went through the courses and would have otherwise not been allowed to join.

“The Navy also mimicked the effort with its own prep courses in 2023.”