Army Draftees Assigned to Wrong Posts

Certain Army draftees have been assigned to the wrong active or reserve duty posts, and have since been reassigned to public service jobs, military sources said yesterday.

Since this year, all draftees have been subject to tests of body mass index, but the Army did not apply the requirement to 174 draftees. Consequently, they were wrongly classified as candidates for active or reserve duty.

A boot camp in Nonsan, South Chungcheong Province, misclassified one man, Reserve Force Unit 306 eight men, Reserve Force Unit 102 88 men and seven regiments under the Second Ground Command 77 men.

A senior military officer said, “We will reassign them to where they should have belonged to begin with. They will start their service May 30, and we will count the days served. In addition, we will hold those who made the mistake responsible.”

“If the draftees wish to continue in their present duties, we will let them as long as their physical conditions allow it.”

Authorities said a number of the 174 draftees have undergone physical changes and are now suitable for active duty even when the index is applied. Some of the draftees say they wish to stay in their present posts

The index is a measure of body fat used by the World Health Organization, and is obtained by dividing a person’s weight by the squared quantity of his or her height. An index of less than 20 is deemed underweight, 20 to 24 normal weight, and 30 or more overweight.

Accordingly, men with height ranging from 159 to 195 centimeters are exempt from active duty in a significant number of cases. In the past, a person in that height group used to serve active terms in most cases.

ysh1005@donga.com