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All but Guard make recruiting goals

ARLINGTON, Va. – The Air Force again nailed its annual active-duty recruiting goals, Defense Department officials announced Wednesday in a Pentagon briefing.

The Air Force Recruiting Service brought in 27,801 recruits this fiscal year — exactly its goal — its eighth year of meeting recruitment goals in all career fields.

Other military branches hit active-duty recruiting goals by either 100 or 101 percent, with the Army adding 80,407 soldiers, the Marine Corps growing by 35,576 and the Navy growing by 37,361.

The Air National Guard did not do so well, however. Guard recruiters enlisted only 9,975 recruits, 93 percent of its mandate to bring in 10,690.

The Air Force Reserve, though, skunked both other components, bringing in 7,110 airmen. That’s 104 percent of its goal of 6,834 airmen.

The Defense Department is preparing figures showing the number of waivers — for aptitude, misconduct or health —that each of the services have issued in the past year.

A rough, preliminary look at the Air Force’s contribution to that report suggests that, because the Defense Department is standardizing misconduct waivers across the services, the percentage of Air Force recruits requiring waivers will increase.