As seen in Newsweek, by Peter A. Coclanis A new scholarly study documenting the poor health of southern military recruits has been much in the news of late (Newsweek , January

A research study released by The Citadel in collaboration with the U.S. Army Public Health Center and the American Heart Association is the first to show that the low fitness of U.S. Army recruits from 10 Southern states poses a threat to military readiness and national security.

The Army’s problem of finding physically fit recruits at a time of rising obesity in the United States is especially acute in the South.