During World War I, about 25% of our nation's youth could not serve because of physical defects.

In World War II, that trend had brought it up to about 50%. Recently, that trend

line shows that only about 23% of our nation's youth are eligible to serve in the military.

So this declining pool of recruits because of physical inability to serve, levels of obesity, lack of fitness, is causing, would cause

in the future a national security concern just from the ability to serve.

Welcome back to another episode of the Modern War Institute podcast.

I'm John Amble, editorial director at MWI.

My guest on this episode is retired Lieutenant General Mark Hurtling.

General Hurtling is a 1975 graduate of West Point.

He retired in 2012 after serving his commanding general of US Army Europe,

and was subsequently appointed by President

Obama to serve on the President's Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition.

He recently visited West Point to speak to cadets about the link between physical fitness

and American military readiness and national security.

I sat down with General Hurtling to continue the conversation on that topic.

A couple quick notes.

If you're not following MWI on Twitter and Facebook, check us out at War Institute.

It's a great way to make sure you see all the articles and other content we're putting out.

Also, as always, the views expressed on this podcast are those of the participants

and don't necessarily reflect the position of any agency of the U.S. government.

General Hurtling, welcome to the MWI podcast.

It's great to be here with you.

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