The largest employer of full-time musicians in the United States is the Department of Defense. There are, within the Department, four separate full-time band programs (Army, Air Force, Marines, and Navy), of which the Army is by far the largest. Not only are these musicians employed
full-time, but they have completely free health care and a uniform, electronic, world-wide health record that follows them for the length of their careers. They also have to adhere to the physical fitness standards of their services, including both height and weight standards and biannual
physical fitness tests; in the Army, the latter includes pushups, sit-ups, and 2-mile runs every 6 months. It has always occurred to me that this population is uniquely suited to the sort of study that the Editorial in the September 2009 issue describes.
Body Mass Penalties in the Physical Fitness Tests of the Army, Air Force, and Navy
