Yupp, fully agree that it is a health hazard for older NS men.
We are a little different from professional armies where men in
their 30s are very fit and not a lot of health problems. We are a
citizen army where our job may be desk bound and then we go in for
3 weeks of intense ICT and a day of IPPT. It will strain the
system. I suffered many injuries during ICT, lucklily not
severe.
One case, I was doing standing broad jump. Trying to beat someone
in my platoon. At that time in 1991 we were still doing unit level
IPPT. Over-ambitious and made a very stretched jump. Fell on my
back and strain a muscle severely.
Another time, helicopter did not want to put wheels on ground
because of very soft ground conditions. Aircrewman was asked by the
pilot to get us to jump out of the heli. I was first to go and
landed on big stone. Twisted my ankle.
I guess if I had been stronger and fitter, I would have recovered
from these faster. But both accidents took me a month or more to
recover.
