It almost goes without saying that the kind of people who’re good enough with technology to be able to fight cyberwars for the United States aren’t the kind of people who you’d expect to be capable of fighting in physical battles. That’s why the US Army is considering loosening the fitness standards for the nation’s future cyber warriors.
There U.S. Army’s recruitment pool keeps getting bigger — around the waistline — a reality that is forcing its top brass to consider relaxing fitness standards for future “cyber warriors.” Maj. Gen. Allen Batschelet, commanding general for the U.S. Army Recruiting Command at Fort Knox, Ky., recently spoke of the challenges recruiters face in a nation where 70 percent of young people between the ages of 17 and 24 are ineligible to serve. “Today, we need cyber warriors, so we’re starting to recruit for Army Cyber,” Gen. Batschelet toldthe Florida Times-Union Oct. 23. “One of the things we’re considering is that your [mission] as a cyber warrior is different.; Maybe you’re not the Ranger who can do 100 pushups, 100 sit-ups and run the 2-mile inside of 10 minutes, but you can crack a data system of an enemy. But you’re physically fit, you’re a healthy person and maintain your professional appearance, but we don’t make you have the same physical standards as someone who’s in the Ranger Battalion,” he added.