As of March 31, the Air Force had 326,199 individuals on active duty, including 13,305 pilots, according to data released yesterday by the Air Force Personnel Center. That’s a 1,566-airmen increase in end strength compared to the end of the year tally for 2008 and leaves the service about 6,500 short of its end strength target of 332,700 by the end of Fiscal 2010. The end-of-March total includes 64,313 officers and 261,886 enlisted personnel. Nearly one-fifth of the force, or 19.6 percent, are women. The average age of an officer is 35, while it’s 29 for an enlisted airman. The service had 123,772 civilian employees at the end of March.
Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, held meetings with defense leaders from the Philippines, Japan, and South Korea during a trip to the Indo-Pacific this week.