In addition to advances in health care, improved nutrition over the past century has produced increases in the mean height, weight, and fat-free mass of soldiers ( Table 3-1) (Karpinos, 1961).
The need for height-weight standards has diminished as the importance of these diseases has diminished. Weight-for-height standards were relevant when a sizable proportion of draftees and volunteers were malnourished, tuberculous, or had parasitic diseases underweight was a good marker of such individuals who were clearly unsuited to the physical demands of the military. Army's fitness emphasis to ensure that forces ''possess the stamina and endurance to fight in extreme climatic and terrain environments'' (Study of the Military Services Physical Fitness, 1981).įor most of the past century, weight-for-height has been a key physical discriminator of a recruit's fitness for military service, but until recently, these standards were used only to exclude underweight candidates. Currently, body fat standards are part of the U.S. This standard has usually meant the selection of soldiers who at least looked as though they could carry loads and fight well. The primary intent of physical standards in the military has always been to select soldiers best suited to the physical demands of military service.
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