Airmen and Guardians can now receive promotions and medals for getting people to sign up to join their services. The move comes as the Air Force grapples with its toughest recruiting year in recent history and projects a 10% shortfall in its active-duty ranks.
Two new programs, which also apply to the Space Force, aim to “incentivize all airmen and Guardians to inspire the next generation to serve,” according to a Thursday press release.
In March, the Department of the Air Force started an effort to research what barriers exist to service amid military-wide recruiting woes. It said in the news release that the new initiatives “serve as a cost-effective instrument for referring candidates and increasing enlistments.”
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The first program is called the Stellar Talent Acquisition Recruiting Referral, or STARR. It allows enlisted service members through senior master sergeant and officers up to lieutenant colonel to get an Air and Space Achievement medal for referring three enlisted applicants to ship off for basic military training; a service member may earn up to two medals this way.
But any enlisted member, as well as an officer up to the rank of colonel, can receive the medal if they hit a higher threshold of referring five applicants who end up departing for basic military training.
The second program, called…
