The IDF is ordering new and longer beds for its soldiers not because the beds have shrunk, but because its new recruits are three centimeters (an inch-and-a-half) taller than they were 10 years ago.
The new beds now being ordered are expected to answer the requirements for sleeping stretched out for all except six percent of the tallest new recruits. These unlucky soldiers will have to sleep with bent knees or with their feet sticking out of the end, the IDF quartermaster said. As far as is known, no research has yet been conducted to determine why today’s recruits are taller than those a decade ago.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
