DOD last week put out data on its recruiting and retention figures for the month of October, covering the active, Guard, and Reserve components of all services. In the active forces, all four services exceeded their recruiting goals. Ditto for four of the six Guard/Reserve components. One that didn’t do very well was the Air National Guard. It signed up only 588 of the 1,010 new airmen it sought, or about 58 percent. On the other hand, ANG retention was about 110 percent of its goal of 986. It’s just a single data point, and a mushy one at that, but it’s something worth watching.
New technologies such as augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) and remote simulator instruction are helping train Airmen faster and improve graduation rates, according to Lt. Gen. Brian Robinson, the head of Air Education and Training Command. That technology is key to what he calls “the pace of cognition,” where Airmen…