"Yet fat soldiers are sometimes given the boot for reasons that have nothing to do with their abilities in the field. According to military guidelines, even someone who's fit as a fiddle can be drummed out of camp for having the wrong body dimensions. Consider that a young man who's 6 feet tall must weigh less than 195 pounds, or have a body fat percentage below 26, in order to serve in the Army. [...] That's true even if he excels on the U.S. Army's Physical Fitness Test. [...] When it comes to body fat, the regs declare that too much flab connotes, first of all, "a lack of personal discipline." Another document suggests that it "detracts from soldierly appearance." So excess weight isn't just a health problem--it's a personality flaw. Oh, and it makes you ugly."
Does anyone have the standards that were used in the late 1960s in the days of the draft? It would be interesting to know how they compare, all be it that apparently obesity is much more common than back then. I did hear that in WWII the problem was that most folks were undernourished (Likely due to economic factors). I do suspect that on the education side the requirements are a lot tighter now than then, because the tasks are so much more complex.
"For the record, I am not this dorky."
You aren't? That makes me sad.