As of March 31, the Air Force had 326,199 individuals on active duty, including 13,305 pilots, according to data released yesterday by the Air Force Personnel Center. That’s a 1,566-airmen increase in end strength compared to the end of the year tally for 2008 and leaves the service about 6,500 short of its end strength target of 332,700 by the end of Fiscal 2010. The end-of-March total includes 64,313 officers and 261,886 enlisted personnel. Nearly one-fifth of the force, or 19.6 percent, are women. The average age of an officer is 35, while it’s 29 for an enlisted airman. The service had 123,772 civilian employees at the end of March.
Trainees in Basic Military Training and technical school no longer have the option to try alternate PT drills if they fail an initial assessment, according to a policy change the Air Force made in April. The move is part of a larger shift out of the classroom and into hands-on,…