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. The normal Army standard is up to 26% body fat for men and 36% for women.
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But the inspector general found that 14% of 1,100 trainees between February and May 2024 far exceeded even those expanded limits.
About one-third of those trainees were separated from the Army on the spot after showing up to the prep course too overweight. It was unclear whether the Army counted those recruits in its recruiting numbers. If so, it could affect whether the service hit its quotas. The service declined to comment on how those trainees are counted.
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.
Investigators reviewed only a relatively small sliver of time from last year, and it's unclear whether the Army has made adjustments to how far outside its entrance standards it's willing to accept incoming recruits. 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.
The Pentagon's inspector general noted that the move was made "unilaterally, without authority." A spokesperson for Brito did not return a request for comment ahead of publication.
On top of that, 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.
The news comes after Military.com reported that the service is likely to have a solid recruiting year, already meeting half of its quota for the fiscal year, which started in October. Much of its recruiting strides this year have been fueled by applicants who signed up last year and were unable to attend basic training due to gridlock in getting applicants trained. The Army doesn't count recruits until they ship to training, meaning the data is normally not an automatic reflection of interest in service.
The Future Soldier Preparatory Courses have effectively been a silver bullet for the recruiting woes that have plagued the service for nearly a decade. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, during his confirmation hearing, mulled the idea of expanding it further.
"[It] seems to be working," Driscoll said during his Senate confirmation hearing. "If confirmed, I want to look and see if that can be scaled further."
Much of the Army's recruiting difficulty has been due to a shrinking pool of eligible applicants as obesity becomes more common and academic test scores slump in the U.S.
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.
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