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U.S. Army Offers Breast Implants as Incentive

HeadlineJul 22, 2004

The U.S. Army is known for its recruiting slogan “Be All You Can Be,” But now, according to The New Yorker magazine, the military is offering a new incentive. Soldiers and their families can receive plastic surgery, including breast enlargements, funded by US taxpayers.

In its July 26th edition, the New Yorker reports that members of all four branches of the U.S. military can get face-lifts, breast enlargements, liposuction and nose jobs for free — something the military says helps surgeons practice their skills. Dr. Bob Lyons, chief of plastic surgery at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio told the magazine “Anyone wearing a uniform is eligible.” Between 2000 and 2003, military doctors performed 496 breast enlargements and more than 1,300 liposuction surgeries on soldiers and their dependents, the magazine said. The magazine quoted an Army spokeswoman as saying, “the surgeons have to have someone to practice on.”

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