I hadn’t really noticed the expanding girths of the military, but it appears to be a problem in law enforcement as well.
I spent a lot of time working in the USA and I was surprised how many fat coppers there were. Mind you, on my first visit there I was surprised how many fat people there were in the population as a whole.
There seemed to be two sizes of people; “normal” and fat, with nothing in between.
There were very few pleasantly plump, or chubby people. The problem appeared to be that people went to work, came home tired, and went out to eat because it was cheap and easy to do.
Supersizing was endemic, and pushed for all it was worth. “For only an extra dollar, you can have twice as much fatty processed food or teeth rotting fizz, sir,” and that was in sit down restaurants.
Steaks in the 'States are usually juicy, tasty and tender, and carry the much vaunted USDA (US Department of Agriculture) endorsement. I had a very interesting chat with a chap in an airport bar once.
He had an organic pig farm, as well as working for the USDA. He told me that all that endorsement means is that it is fit for human consumption, not that it is good, or good for you.
He said that US steaks are tasty and tender because the animals are fed on corn or maize. The problem is that cows aren’t designed to run on corn and maize, they are designed to run mainly on grasses and the plants that grow alongside them.
It’s a bit like running a petrol engine on paraffin. It will work, but not very well. You need to tinker with the fuel and airflow. Bigger flow jets, more air, and increased cooling.
When you try to use corn and maize to fuel a cow, it gets upset tummies, and there are four of them per beast. This causes infections, so the cow has to be pumped full of anti-biotics, some of which can still be in the meat we eat. This isn’t a case of using antibiotics if or when they get an infection, they are all pumped full of the stuff because they will get problems due to their forced unnatural diet.
The military, well I never served, nor did I ever want to. My job took me to several RAF bases, and an Army base in the UK, and two US Air Force bases “over there,” so I got to see, and sometimes mix with the troops. I have a few stories I can tell about that.
My Dad was a Quaker, and Conscientious Objector during WW2. When he refused to be called up he went before a tribunal to plead his case. He once told me that he didn’t know if he was going to be put in prison, or up against a wall and shot.
Thankfully he was excused service on religious grounds, and was conscripted into the Land Army instead and set to work on a five acre small holding in the grounds of a large private school.
My Mum started there as a nursery nurse when she was sixteen which is how they met. He took her to the cinema a few years later and there was newsreel footage of the death camps.
It changed him completely. He lost his faith and decided that actually there were some things that were so evil that actually it was right to take a life. He went and joined the British Army, but was too late by then to see action.
He was promoted a couple of times, and offered a commission to become an officer, but was injured during a training exercise and was given an honourable discharge.
I didn’t know any of this until I was about forty when our eldest was doing a project on the war and decided he was going to interview his grandparents and great grandparents to find out what it was like for them, including the women who were at home bringing up the children whilst their men were away for several years.
I have since found lots of things about my grandfathers and great uncles who fought during WW1 thanks to a suitcase full of photos and documents, including a postcard album.
One snippet from my research revealed that my great uncle Vic was a staunch socialist, and refused to take a life.
He won a medal for bravery as a stretcher bearer.
I too have the greatest of respect that serve to keep our shores safe.
