Air Force ‘Cautiously Optimistic’ It Will Meet 2024 Recruiting Goals
Dec. 14, 2023 | By Chris Gordon
The Department of the Air Force is targeting a larger group of Americans as it tries to improve its recruiting, the DAF’s top civilian in charge of personnel said Dec. 13—and the Air Force thinks it may be on track to meet its target next year.
“I can say we are cautiously optimistic that we will achieve Active-Duty Air Force and Space Force enlisted accession goals” in fiscal 2024, assistant secretary of the Air Force for manpower and reserve affairs Alex Wagner said during a Dec. 13 Congressional hearing.
Military recruiting has been lagging over the past few years, a widely acknowledged and persistent issue—only the Marine Corps and Space Force met their fiscal 2023 goals. In written testimony to the House Armed Services subcommittee on personnel, Wagner said the regular Air Force missed its recruiting goal by just under 11 percent for fiscal 2023.
“Our recruiting is trying to reach the broadest swath of the American people possible,” said Wagner. Testifying alongside Pentagon and fellow service personnel chiefs, he pushed back against some lawmakers’ assertions that today’s military is overly political.
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/air-force-2024-recruiting-goals/