The monthly recruiting and retention data show active duty recruiting and retention are holding firm, meeting, or exceeding service goals, says Pentagon officials. There is still bad news for the Air National Guard, though. This time, ANG retention was down slightly. The Air Guard posted 91 percent of its goal for new accessions, but that is a whale of an improvement over the 71 percent it made in November. However, its retention rate was off the mark a bit, falling from 101 percent in November to 97 percent in December. The good news is that ANG still has 99 percent of its end strength.
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.