During a media round table, Secretary Frank Kendall told Military.com,
We’re almost to the end of the fiscal year, and the expectation is we’re going to come in short about 10%. I’m overall encouraged by where we are in recruiting, but we still have a lot of work.
Kendall said, adding that the service plans to address long-standing recruiting issues in an effort to improve next year.
Leslie Brown, a spokeswoman for the Air Force Recruiting Service, also told Military.com in an email that while the Air Force is slated to be behind their goals by 10% this fiscal year, recruitment for next year’s cycle is supposedly doing better.
Currently, the active duty is projected to miss [its] goal by about 10%. We are cautiously optimistic though as we head into FY24. We’ve seen some positive trends such as the positive growth of our DEP [delayed-entry program], which is double what it was this time last year. It’s still lower than we want it to be, but we are continuing to see increases.
Brown explained, adding that all the necessary job requirements for October have been filled, with 15 more needing to be occupied for November
The Air Force knew many months ago that they would miss their goals but have strived to relax some of the rules and regulations to get more recruits. This includes, Military.com says, ‘offering medals and promotions for recruiting; streamlining the naturalization process so recruits can become citizens during basic military training; offering reserve bonuses for prior-service airmen; reinstating the Enlisted College Loan Repayment Program; allowing certain tattoos on the hands and neck; and unveiling a new smartphone feature that allows airmen to send info on almost anyone to a recruiter.’
But this recruitment miss is part of a much broader trend facing the U.S. armed forces, as most young Americans have zero interest in joining, are very unfit and overweight, actively use drugs, and have many other mental and physical conditions. The Pentagon claims that only 23% of the eligible age bracket is negligible to be recruited.
SEE: New Data Shows That 10,000 US Army Soldiers Fell Into Obesity Since Lockdowns
‘The Air Force Recruiting Service has told Military.com in the past year that less than 10% of the young population is interested in serving in the first place – 50% can’t even name all the military service branches,’ the military publication added. Nevertheless, Kendall still remains optimistic.
I don’t think at the end of the day that this is going to be a fundamental constraint for national security, at least not for the Department of the Air Force.
He said
The WinePress has previously reported that the other branches are having their own recruitment struggles, with the Army having their worst miss ever last year. A Marine General has since commented that the Covid-19 vaccine mandates have been a big reason why recruitment is down.
On top of that the fitness standards and aptitude tests have been drastically lowered to be easier for more recruits to pass, including the weight limits to accommodate chunkier recruits.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
As I have noted before, the U.S. military is in a serious predicament. It cannot replenish new troops, the standards are now laughable, moral is at all-time lows, the troops are soft and ill-prepared for any real meaningful war and defense. Covid-19 vaccine mandates are the biggest reason why recruitment is done; but it also includes young generations seeing what the government is doing in provoking World War III with Russia and China; and simply not wanting to participate in the military industrial complex’s wargames, to enrich the lives of the ultrarich, to go fight and die for a country that hates them.
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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The Air Force is more woke than the Army and Navy combined. Not to mention, that diabolical jabbing profess they do on recruits.
I tried out for the Army (honorable discharge for medical reasons) considered the Air Force, took the ASVAB for the Navy, but now…I know that my country hates me just as much as anybody else you included, the military industrial complex is not fighting for freedom – that’s all smoke and mirrors, they though hurting or shaming those that are weak creates toughness which is a damnable lie, and now with the woke politics, feminism, sodomy, and the jabs, I will NEVER serve in ANY branch! You can go fight for Ukraine by yourself!