Kenna Morton's Journal, 24 May 22

Seeing this picture always makes me wonder. See if you can follow my thought process here. In the “light infantry” then as an Airborne Ranger, you always pride yourself on being the best of the best. It is driven into you that you can accomplish anything. In training, you are put through some of the most difficult situations there are. I remember having a conversation while I was in the army with another guy back in the early 70’s. He said achieving the CIB in training is much more difficult than in combat. I know what he meant. We always trained to be in the peak mental and physical condition. Now, every couple of years we have a reunion for one of the units I was in. I look around and we (in general) are fat, have physical problems that are a lot similar to each other. I was talking to one friend at our last reunion, and he was telling me he was having problems walking. He had issues with his hips and his knees. I told him how many people do we know that was in the “light infantry” that do not have problems with their legs, backs, knees, or hips. It was a rare person that did not have these issues. For people who don’t know, they call the light infantry the light infantry because they travel “light” Every thing from crew served weapons to living support equipment is carried on our back. It was not unheard of to carry 80 pounds of equipment on your back on a 15 mile “stroll through the countryside.” So I often thing to myself, I wonder if working all of those muscle, and having all of that pressure on our skeleton has led us to having this physical ailments in our older years. We also would consume some 3000 calories in a day – so of course when we get out our eating habits must change. My whole point with all of this is – I wonder if professional athletes or athletes that compete at the highest levels pay a similar price in their “golden years.” Kenna, I know you were in the medical profession and I wonder what are your thoughts about this?  

I like that quote. 

Skydiverone—this is just a “gut instinct” answer. I think that long term physical effect of military activity as you described is probably limited. In the scope of things that four year term of service is a blip on the screen and carrying heavy weight is an activity of limited duration, not a 24/7 thing. Now athletes are another story. Baseball players with long term shoulder problems or football players, soccer players—- runners. negative effects from long term repetitive motion. . Injury aside, obesity is probably the most common cause of many of the problems that you are seeing amongst your friends as it is amongst mine. As younger people—those of us who are boomers probably all ate a high calorie count because we were so physically active. I remember my mom had to make sure I ate at least 5000 calories a day or I would loose weight.. so again, as we get older, have sedentary jobs, eat out all the time, binge TV instead of getting themselves and their kids outside to do things together. I am super interested in robotics. They now have large robotic “dogs” that can carry super heavy weight across uneven, steep terrain. If you are interested, just GOOGLE robotic dogs for military application and you will come across many interesting you- tube videos that show what is being developed to help our military guys.  

I have seen most of those robotic developments. They have been working on all of that stuff for a long time, putting together different technologies. I just think sometimes, the military developed the Internet for quick and secretive communications, then it was commercialized, rangefinder technology, drones, and intelligent munitions systems, and they continue to push and move the lines between possible and impossible. I think – when John Kennedy talked about putting a man on the moon and returning them safely back in the early 60’s the technology wasn’t even developed yet. I remember as a small kid standing out in our backyard with my parents and older brother watching sputnik and being half amazed and half horrified over its fly-over. Fromm the development of color TV, cellphones, the personal computers, cashless toll takers, keyless locks, iris technology, we have actually gone beyond, George Orwell’s 1984  

You are so correct.— and it is getting a little scary 

I've read that football players often have heart trouble later in life, due to overdeveloped heart muscles. I had a friend who was a football pro who died of a heart attack at 49. 

Erikahollister— you are correct, “athletes heart”. Enlargement of the left ventricle called LEFT VENTRICULAR HYPERTROPHY. The NFL and many players are part of a scientific/medical study of these athletes as they move through life. I haven’t followed this enough to get a feel for any preliminary findings they might have.