Despite missing its monthly recruiting goal for the month of May, the Air National Guard is flush with new recruits, ensuring it is ahead of its overall fiscal year goal. The same goes for the Army National Guard and Army Reserve, which also came in under their goals last month, according to the latest data just released by the Pentagon. Otherwise, the enlisted recruiting and retention picture for the US military remains strong, with all other components reporting 100 percent or better for May, as they did the previous month. So far this fiscal year, recruiting overall has been up; however, USAF’s top personnel officer, Lt. Gen. Richard Newton, said recently that the service likely will face retention challenges next year in certain shortage career fields.
President Donald Trump’s nominee for Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff touted his highly unusual background for the job as an asset and reaffirmed his commitment to stay apolitical during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on April 1.