A Private's Privates

While the Bundeswehr doesn't have any regulations on the books prohibiting its buffed-up troops from pumping up their biceps, a 23-year-old German woman found out that -- surprisingly to some -- the army isn't interested in big breasts.

At least not in artificially large ones.

"I still can't believe that my silicon breasts are going to destroy my dream," the woman told the mass-market Bild newspaper on Thursday, Dec. 3. "I could cry."

"I wanted to be a paramedic," she added. "To save lives."

Identified only as Alessija, the woman said she had hoped to sign a 12-year contract with the armed forces but was classified as "not usable" because of the pair of 250 milliliter (8.5 fluid ounce) implants.

What kind of risk?

A Bundeswehr official did not say if the military was concerned the woman would shoot her -- or a fellow soldier's -- eye out.

"The abstract risk of injury is too large of a responsibility to bear," the paper quoted Marion Krauskopf, head of Berlin district draft board.

The army added that the health regulations currently prohibit people with implants from joining the military are being re-examined, leaving Alessija with a chance of fulfilling her dream.

"The rule is no longer contemporary," Harald Kammerbauer, a defense ministry spokesman, told the Bild. "In the future there will be a case-by-case analysis. The lady should apply again."

There has, however, been no word on whether implants could help German men avert mandatory military service.