The Air Force and its reserve components met their recruiting goals for the fiscal year to date through July, according to the Pentagon’s newest data, released Wednesday. USAF’s active duty component brought in 23,210 recruits through the first 10 months of Fiscal 2011, exactly meeting its accession goal for the year so far, according to the numbers. The Air National Guard has attracted 5,730 accessions through July, six more than its year-to-date goal. Similarly, the Air Force Reserve is tracking 12 recruits ahead of its goal of 7,632 through July. Fiscal 2011 is shaping up to be “a banner year” for the Air Force in recruiting, with the service meeting its accession requirements “at an unprecedented level of excellence,” said Brig. Gen. Balan Ayyar, Air Force Recruiting Service commander, in a release. Among the other services and their reserve components, only the Army National Guard did not meet or exceed its recruiting goal through July. (See also our previous entry on the recruiting numbers through June.)
A recent seven-day exercise sent Air Force F-22s—along with other USAF aircraft—to austere, challenging environments across Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Agile Reaper, taking place for the second time after its inaugural edition last year, featured 800 Airmen and 29 aircraft across five different locations from April 10-16, training…