Reply #8: Too Fat

[RoyGBiv]

Don't try that one. Even in a peace-time army, if a recruiter is running below his quota, he'll "work with you." What "work with you" means is get you to sign your name and then send you off to what is basically an intensive weight loss camp.

A friend of mine was recruited by the Navy because he had this amazing aptitude for math. The problem was he was quite overweight. He got the "work with you" line, and he said it was a worse hell than he'd ever imagined. Made basic training a breeze, though.

As to the original questions, I don't know the answers except what the selective service site says (http://www.sss.gov). But I'm acquainted with an army recruiter, and I've talked to him recently. He's having to run all over the state trying to meet his quotas, and he said he's accepting people that probably wouldn't have been accepted two years ago. The standards are laid out pretty clearly, but when it gets down to the human level, there's quite a bit of subjectiveness to it. It depends on need and the predilections of the individual recruiter.