novnotes

It seemed to me as I went through Infantry Basic Training and Advanced Individual Training in the summer of 1967, that far too many young American guys were physically unprepared for the challenges we were about to face. Our shortcoming became increasingly clear as training turned into sustained patrols on the Korean DMZ during the summer of 1968. Many years later, I read The Wasted Generation by COL George Walton (U.S.A.R., Ret.). COL Walton was at ground zero of the selective service effort in the 1960's, and he saw firsthand just how unfit my generation was at that time. In 1965 he wrote:

More than half of the young men called up by Selective Service are so fat, maladjusted, or illiterate that they are rejected for military service. Out of every four youths summoned for the draft, two will pass--mostly because the standards have been lowered enough to accommodate their flabby bodies and unlettered minds.

Of the other two out of four, one will flunk a relatively primitive intelligence test, one of those questions may be based on the sentence, "It was a small table." The applicant is then asked whether "sturdy," "round," "cheap," or "little' is a word most like "small." The other rejectee will flunk the physical--probably because he is simply too fat.

COL Walton's "wasted generation" has created an even less fit generation while our world demands more fit and alert citizens. Reversing the downward spiral of American physical culture demands a fundamental paradigm shift fueled by a noble vision for the future. Veterans Day falls once a year, but it is foolish and irresponsible to wave our flags and then forget its purpose. It is the responsibility of every citizen to be prepared to defend the highest ideals of the nation. History clearly warns that unfit nations will not survive.

Tomorrow's battlefields will be faster and more lethal than ever before. From 1993-2000 I was at ground zero of Army physical readiness training at Fort Benning, Georgia. Before that, I spent over three decades studying physical fitness in the civilian sector. Believe me . . . our nation is fit to fail, and the clock is ticking.