T
he Air National Guard, alone among the military components, did not achieve at least 100 percent of its December 2007 recruiting goal. It was shy by 26 recruits. However, although Lt. Gen. Craig McKinley, ANG director, has said he expects 2008 to be a tough recruiting year, the slight downturn hasn’t yet affected the bottom line, since the Air Guard began the new fiscal year with two very good months, bringing in 134 percent and 133 percent of its goals, respectively for October and November. In December, both the active duty Air Force and Air Force Reserve Command made 100 percent of their goals.
The defense intelligence community has tried three times in the past decade to build a “common intelligence picture”—a single data stream providing the information that commanders need to make decisions about the battlefield. The first two attempts failed. But officials say things are different today.