Facts matter: Military is lowering standards to allow overweight soldiers

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week gave a speech to hundreds of U.S. military leaders in Virginia, noting that an overweight army is “a bad look” for the U.S.

“Frankly, it’s tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops,” Hegseth said. “Likewise, it’s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon and leading commands around the country and the world.”

However, the military has actually lowered its standards to allow some overweight people to serve, according to The Associated Press.

In 2016, the Navy changed its restrictions to allow recruits who failed the physical challenge three times to get one more chance to pass the test under more lenient guidelines. The Navy said it was losing some talented sailors who didn’t pass the physical tests.

Ray Mabus, the Navy Secretary at that time, said it was not a matter of lowering standards but adjusting to the idea that overweight people are not necessarily unhealthy.

As it is, three-quarters of 17-24 year olds recruited for military service are not eligible, for a variety of reasons, with being overweight as the largest cause for dismissal, the AP said. One in 10 recruits are rejected for being too fat.

Some have argued that, with higher standards, the military is missing out on a talent pool to deal with the current high-tech warfare. Much of that talent then ends up working in the private sector.

‘Med bed’ cards don’t exist

President Donald Trump recently posted a video, in which he seems to be promising people a medical cure-all, during a Fox News segment.

“Every American will soon receive their own ‘med bed’ card. With it you’ll have guaranteed access to our new hospitals, led by the top doctors in the nation, equipped with the most advanced technology in the world,” the president appears to say in the video posted Sept. 27 to Truth Social.

But this video isn’t real, according to USA Today. The message is fake, the Fox News broadcast is fake and the “Trump” is fake.

The Fox News segment and the video of Trump were created using artificial intelligence.

The idea of “med bed” is a fake conspiracy which “has roots in the QAnon movement and falsely claims that cure-all medical beds exist and are being kept from the public,” USA Today said.

The video has since been deleted from Trump’s Truth Social account.

People not arrested for social media post

A video, recently posted to Facebook, shows English police officers using a chain saw to break into a house, apparently to arrest people for a social media comment.

“This happens, when you post something randomly on Social Media after long working shift and went to sleep in UK,” read the caption on the clip.

Another similar post included the headline, “All this for naughty words. Unbelievable.”

That video is real, according to Reuters, but it’s miscaptioned.

Officers weren’t there for a social media post. They were conducting a search on a drugs-related warrant. A spokesperson from the Hertfordshire Police Department told Reuters that the video showed officers executing a warrant during a drugs investigation.

Hertfordshire police had posted the video to Instagram on July 4, showing other departments helping with the investigation.

Chihuahua didn’t join wolf pack

A recent online post featured a fascinating dog story.

“Chihuahua Joins the Wolf Pack: A Remarkable Story of Friendship and Survival,” read the article’s headline.

The story tells of a “scrappy stray Chihuahua” who was friendly to the citizens of Ely, Minnesota. After more than a year, the dog disappeared. Many thought it was killed by wolves. But later, a trail camera set up by a farmer showed the dog living with a wolf pack, according to the post.

Incredible, but not true, according to Lead Stories.

The images of the Chihuahua running with the wolves were digitally altered.

The original photos, taken from a Facebook account called “Voyageurs Wolf Project,” just showed the wolves. The photo of the dog was added to those photos, making it appear it was part of the pack.

The article was also created using artificial intelligence, Lead Stores said.

• Bob Oswald is a veteran Chicago-area journalist and former news editor of the Elgin Courier-News. Contact him at boboswald33@gmail.com.