The Government Accountability Office says that DOD does not have a good handle on the extent of “irregularities” committed by military recruiters. Says GAO in a new report, “Even one incident of recruiter wrongdoing can erode public confidence.” The Pentagon agrees with both of these sentiments and plans to create an “oversight framework to assess recruiter irregularities and to provide overall guidance to the services.” Of course, the Pentagon also agreed almost 10 years ago to an earlier GAO recommendation that DOD instruct the Air Force, Army, and Navy to link recruiter performance to the number of recruits that successfully complete basic training, not simply the number recruited. To date, only the Marine Corps does this.
The Air Force is planning to spend $2.19 billion over the next five years to acquire new C-37 jets for transporting military and civilian leaders. That’s on top of another $1.17 billion in projected funding for the VC-25B “Air Force One” replacement.