Michael Schwarz writes for the Western Journal about a new priority within the U.S. Department of Defense.

Friday morning on the social media platform X, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth responded to an alarming new report about the incidence of obesity among National Guard and Reserve troops by calling the situation “completely unacceptable” and pledging a new military made up of “FIT, not FAT” service members.

“This is what happens when standards are IGNORED — and this is what we are changing. REAL fitness & weight standards are here,” Hegseth wrote.

American Security Project research analyst Katherine Yusko authored the new study.

“As operational demands on the U.S. Armed Forces’ reserve component increase, rising rates of weight-related illnesses in the National Guard and reserves present a growing threat to manpower, mission readiness, and service member well-being,” Yusko wrote.

She added that problems stemming from obesity “hamper reserve component readiness to respond to threats both overseas and at home.”

Thus, getting “FIT, not FAT” qualifies as a national-security imperative.

Moreover, one could scarcely exaggerate the scope of the problem.

“In order to respond quickly, safely, and effectively to a wide array of threats both at home and abroad, the reserve component must ensure that its service members are fit and healthy,” Yusko wrote. “As of 2018, however, more than 65 percent of reserve personnel have either clinical overweight or obesity. If reserve component rates have tracked active component trends in recent years, as they have done in the past, this figure has now climbed to nearly 68 percent.”

In other words, regardless of the precise figure, approximately two-thirds of reservists do not qualify as fit.

Of course, a story of this kind calls to mind problems that go beyond the military. And the solutions to those problems require coordination across the Trump administration.