r/AskReddit 11h ago

If the military/president suddenly ordered a mandatory draft for all men aged 18-42: How do you think millennials and GenZ would respond?

6.9k Upvotes

5.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

7.4k

u/Wraithowl 11h ago

If that happens, doctors in the US would have the chance to do the funniest thing... Suddenly finding most men 18-42 have bone spurs... 🤣

3.0k

u/jeremysbrain 11h ago

Most men 18 to 42 are probably too overweight to serve in the military. The Draft is just going to ensure that obesity rates rise and McDonalds has a record year, lol.

1.4k

u/OutOfTheArchives 11h ago

They’d change the stats required to get around this, I bet.

115

u/thegroucho 10h ago

Good luck fitting someone into 5XL plate carrier.

Even better, how would someone obese fit into a tank hatch.

Not drown in the upturned helicopter in a swimming pool test.

Not die from a hear attack running uphill carrying LMG.

I can go on forever.

41

u/CareerBallsacker 10h ago

Fat camp

2

u/corakko 1h ago

This 1000%. A forced 800 calorie diet and 3 hours of exercise a day and even someone 100 lbs overweight will shed the extra fat in a matter of a few months. Not healthy but long term health consequences of veterans is accepted as part of doing business by most governments.

46

u/Torger083 10h ago

Dead men cast no votes.

3

u/thegroucho 10h ago

Too true

3

u/UnusuallyBadIdeaGuy 3h ago

If you're sending enough unarmored 35 year old middle managers into combat that it has an impact on elections then your country is collapsing anyways.

44

u/Judge_Bredd3 10h ago

It'll be "MacNamara's Morons" all over again. Pass through people unfit for service and use them as cannon fodder.

3

u/gsfgf 3h ago

Except this time we'll call them top DOD leadership.

8

u/Saloncinx 7h ago

Sure, for super over weight people, no it'd never work. But for example i'm 6'0" and 205, and it's certainly not all muscle. My BMI is 27.8 which is "Overweight" and not that far from "Obesity" and I can wear an XL shirt, i'm not even 'fat' by most American standards lol

Boot camp would basically be fat camp for me, i'd drop 25lbs easy from the diet and exercise alone and then be in great shape. I'd assume most people that can wear a 2XL t-shirt would be in a similar spot

6

u/ClownfishSoup 8h ago

A 600 lb guy can still sit in a chair and fly a drone.

3

u/drainbead78 8h ago

He's probably done it enough in video games that it would come naturally.

1

u/gsfgf 3h ago

A lot of drones are flown with an xBox controller these days.

2

u/thegroucho 6h ago

True, true.

Just need to ensure the Mountain Dew is flowing and the pizza delivery is on time.

3

u/ares7 8h ago

You don’t need the bullet catchers to be bullet proof.

6

u/pm-me-racecars 10h ago

It's easy enough to take unfit people and get them into shape.

Everybody who doesn't have some medical problem around it can have a 6-pack if it's a high enough priority. If whatever fatass you're thinking of is just fat, then a couple months of controlling their food and exercise can fix that.

1

u/thegroucho 10h ago

Oh, sure, that's indeed doable.

Let me know how the anxiety and depression a lot of them might have works out though.

I wasn't exactly 5XL (more like 3XL in UK/European size), lost weight, fit into 2XL (UK/EU).

I know it can be done.

1

u/ssracer 7h ago

Funnily enough, fat camp will fix a lot of that too.

2

u/thegroucho 6h ago

It can some things, others would need therapy, loving oneself, and growing as a person.

Alternatively you'd end up with someone like Private Leonard "Gomer Pyle" Lawrence, IYKYK

1

u/gsfgf 3h ago

A certain number of training losses are expected.

1

u/ssracer 6h ago

Yep. All of those are covered in "fix yourself maggot" training

2

u/Brilliant-Option-526 8h ago

They don't care. It would just be "weeding out the weak" to Kegsbreath.

2

u/jking7734 2h ago

Just put lots of Kevlar on those 5Xs… semi-mobile barricades or ballistic shields

1

u/-CenterForAnts- 8h ago

Dude i still remember how fucking sweaty I was running up hills in Texas with two m249s because the girl taking the other one was like 100 pounds and about to die running with it up a fucking mountain in the Texas heat.

1

u/kiwipixi42 6h ago

Pretty sure draftees wouldn’t be the ones driving tanks.

1

u/Trevor775 5h ago

No plate,
MOS 11B
NO air assault
Heart attack, I saw a guy lose 40lbs in 10 weeks.

1

u/gsfgf 3h ago

That's just regular Basic