Air Force meets, exceeds recruiting goals for ninth consecutive year

  • Published
  • By Capt Amy Bartholomew
  • Air Force Recruiting Service Public Affairs
RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  The Air Force met its active-duty enlisted recruiting goal for the ninth year in a row, and met its chaplain and Officer Training School accession goals for fiscal year 2008.

"I'm proud of our highly-professional recruiting force who continues to exemplify the Air Force core values of integrity, service and excellence to young people from all walks of life, from all areas of the country," said Brig. Gen. A.J. Stewart, Air Force Recruiting Service commander. "The next generation of America's Airmen is an outstanding group of men and women that will continue our proud heritage of being the world's best Air Force."

From October 2007 through the end of September 2008, the Air Force brought in 27,765 new enlistees and 83 prior-service Airmen. Additionally, the Air Force accessed 25 chaplains, 417 Officer Training School candidates and 894 health professionals.

"The Air Force continues to attract the highest quality of men and women," said Lt. Col. Angelo Haygood, AFRS Operations Division deputy chief. "Last year we accessed nearly 28,000 enlisted members, with nearly 80 percent of them scoring in the top 50 percentile of the Armed Forces Qualifying Test."

The Air Force is still hiring and seeks to fill more than 140 enlisted career specialty areas with 31,780 new Airmen in 2009, an increase of 4,000 accessions from fiscal year 2008.

Airborne linguists, ground linguists, combat controllers and security forces were the most high-demand Air Force career fields in 2008. Combat controllers, pararescuemen and security forces are highly sought after in 2009 for the enlisted force.