Fact Check: 71% Of Gen Z Are Too Fat Or Too Criminal To Serve In U.S. Military. Photo: Twitter
Gen Z is known for not having a filter when it comes to railing against injustice. They are also major proponents of “living your truth” and body positivity. However, according to data from the Pentagon, they are taking some of their ideologies so far, 71% of them are ineligible for military service due to obesity or criminal records.
“Of people ages 17 to 24, almost 71%, or 24 million out of 34 million, are ineligible to join the military because of obesity, lack of high school diploma, or a criminal record, according to Pentagon data,” Bloomberg reported.
As a result, the U.S. military has faced an immense challenge with recruiting new soldiers. Faced with heavy competition form colleges and universities, as well as employers, the Army has turned to the medium Gen Z knows best: social media.
Using videos on YouTube and other platforms, the Army has created an anime series entitled “The Calling” that features characters from various backgrounds who find, you guessed it, their calling in the military.
“The videos feature Emma, the self-proclaimed spoiled kid; David, the Hawaiian kid who at first didn’t let himself dream about becoming a pilot; Rickie, who grew up in a religious Haitian family in Florida; Janeen, a singer performing on cruise ships who joined the Reserves with the help of her Vietnam-veteran father; and Jennifer, born to first-generation Dominican immigrants, who worked long hours to make ends meet,” Bloomberg reported.
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Out of the 29% of eligible Gen Zers, the Army is hoping to convince young people a career of military service is a viable option for them. “Today, young people see the Army as a distant star, a place that requires nearly superhuman level of discipline and excellence—and they do not see necessarily how that sort of perspective or myth, what that has to do with what their interests, abilities, and goals are,” Maj. Gen. Alex Fink, the Army’s chief of enterprise marketing, told Bloomberg.
“We are revered, but we are not relevant,” Fink continued. “People thank me for my service but they don’t necessarily think about Army service as something they might advise their children or other younger people” to pursue,”
In 2018, when the data about Gen Z’s large ineligibility first made headlines, Gen. Stephen Townsend, head of Training and Doctrine Command, said though the eligible pool represents the minority of Gen Z, it is still large enough to meet the U.S. military’s needs.
“If we recruit successfully from the 30 percent that’s there, that’s more than enough to fill our armed forces — not just the Army,” Townsend said during a recruiting event.
To accomplish its goal, the Army is spending $425 million on marketing annually. So far, the approach seems to be yielding positive results. The Army enlisted 500 recruits through its marketing efforts in 2019, 13,000 in 2020 and is on track to do 20,000 in 2021.
