{"id":69440,"date":"2025-03-06T19:15:52","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T19:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2025\/03\/06\/air-force-sees-historic-recruitment-surge-with-delayed-entry-program\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T01:20:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:20:35","slug":"air-force-sees-historic-recruitment-surge-with-delayed-entry-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air-warfare\/2025\/03\/06\/air-force-sees-historic-recruitment-surge-with-delayed-entry-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Air Force sees historic recruitment surge with delayed entry program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

AURORA, Colo. \u2014 The Air Force is seeing a historic surge in recruits in its delayed entry program, as the service works to further boost recruitment of new airmen and guardians, officials said this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More potential recruits are making appointments with recruiters to discuss the possibility of joining the Air Force or Space Force, Air Force Recruiting Service commander Brig. Gen. Christopher Amrhein told reporters at the AFA Warfare Symposium in Aurora, Colorado, on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s more, the Air Force is shipping more new recruits off to basic military training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas on a weekly basis than it did even two years ago, Amrhein said. And the service is more than filling its delayed entry program \u2014 essentially a waiting list of recruits who have signed up and been approved to join the military, but who have to wait for room at basic training to ship out \u2014 which typically doesn\u2019t happen in winter, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had 3,000 appointments last week alone,\u201d Amrhein said. \u201cWe normally have 1,600.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin announced<\/a> Sunday on social media platform X that the Air Force had accumulated 13,000 recruits in the delayed entry program, the most in nearly 10 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With more recruits joining, the Air Force was sending 750 to 800 airmen to basic military training each week, according to the Amrhein. When he first took over Air Force recruiting in 2023, that number was around 500 to 600 a week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amrhein said that the rise in airmen did not appear to be an anomaly either and that he would not be surprised if the trend continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince my time in the recruiting business … I haven\u2019t seen numbers that high, at least consistently that high,\u201d Amrhein said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t