AURORA, Colorado — Maj. Gen. Ed Thomas will be finishing out his three-year stint as the commander of the Air Force Recruiting Service this summer.
But the next few months will be some of the toughest in his time leading the Air Force's recruiting efforts.
The service, after barely meeting its active-duty recruiting goals last year, announced this week it was projecting a 10% shortfall in the ranks and even more for the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard. That's the equivalent of around 5,000 people, nearly the total of all the airmen at the 366th Fighter Wing stationed at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho.
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“It is a direct correlation to combat readiness,” Thomas told Military.com in an interview at the Air and Space Force Association's Warfare Symposium on Wednesday. “So, it is absolutely critical that we close that gap.”
But when pressed on how the service will solve a lot of these issues, Thomas told reporters during a media roundtable that there isn't one “silver bullet or game-changing strategy” that could reverse a wave of trends dissuading America's youth from serving.
Americans are seeing some of the lowest unemployment rates in more than 50 years. The Pentagon has released studies showing that only 23% of American youth are eligible to serve right now. The Air Force Recruiting Service said, overall, that less than 10%…
