The United States Army and Air Force have issued calls for retirees to return to active duty.
The Army’s recruitment challenges have been mounting in recent years. Recruiting has been hampered by COVID-19 vaccine requirements as well as an increasingly woke military atmosphere where trans soldiers are give special privileges while Christian soldiers are persecuted, bases host drag shows, and leaders with a history of anti-white statements are hired.
According to Army Times, “The Army fell about 15,000 soldiers — or 25% — short of its recruitment goal this [2022], officials confirmed Friday, despite a frantic effort to make up the widely expected gap in a year when all the military services struggled in a tight jobs market to find young people willing and fit to enlist.”
The current fiscal year is likely to be even worse. The shortfall forced the Army to cut its planned active-duty end strength from 476,000 to 466,000, but according to the War on The Rocks outlet, “Army officials project that active end strength could shrink by as much as 20,000 soldiers by September, down to 445,000.
That means that the nation’s primary land force could plummet by as much as 7 percent in only two years — at a time when its missions are increasing in Europe and even in the Pacific, where the Army provides many of the critical wartime theater enablers without which the other services cannot function.“
Contributing to the recruitment challenge is a significant decline in enlistment from white males, a demographic that historically constituted a large portion of the Army’s recruits.
The number of white recruits decreased by nearly half in the past five years, with the most substantial annual drop of 6% occurring from 2022 to 2023. Conversely, Black and Hispanic recruit numbers have remained relatively stable but have grown as a percentage of total recruits due to the decrease in white recruits.
In an effort to bolster its ranks, the Air Force announced in February the revival of its Voluntary Retired Return to Active Duty (VRRAD) Program. This initiative aims to fill up to 1,000 mid-career positions, urgently seeking pilots, combat systems officers, recruiters, and air traffic controllers.
Air Force Times reported:
The application window for the Voluntary Retired Return to Service Program opens Thursday, the Air Force said in a release. Applications must be submitted by Jan. 31, 2026, to serve on active duty for no more than 48 months. Those selected can expect to return to uniform between four and six months after they apply.
“The VRRAD program is a strategic enabler to embrace experienced talent, tapping into a valuable resource of retired members to fill critical roles to close the gap against our peer competitors,” Lt. Gen. Caroline Miller, the service’s uniformed personnel chief, said in a release.
The program is limited to commissioned officers who held the rank of captain through lieutenant colonel, as well as former enlisted staff sergeants through senior master sergeants. Retirees who served in the medical, legal and chaplain corps — known as “non-line” officers — are ineligible to return.
While anyone who is eligible may apply, regardless of the job they held while in uniform,the Air Force is focusing on bringing back a range of commissioned roles, from pilots and combat systems officers to cyber specialists, contracting officers and more. The service also wants to staff up its enlisted corps in fields like recruiting, air traffic control, security forces, health care and others.
Read more here.
Following the Air Force’s lead, the Army has opened its doors to retired soldiers through a service-wide directive. The All Army Activities (ALARACT) document outlines how retirees can locate and apply for open positions, with the ultimate goal of maintaining a fully staffed Army.
“A review of commands’ requests for [the] fill of authorized personnel vacancies, in conjunction with current Army manning guidance, prompted review of how the Army can fill key and critical position vacancies,” the document explains.
“The retiree recall program can be an effective tool to fill personnel shortages of authorized regular Army vacancies that are considered key and essential.”
More from Daily Caller:
It was unclear whether the Army had already identified manning shortages to be filled or was issuing the message in anticipation of future need. The Army did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s comments by deadline.
Any Army, Reserve or National Guard soldier who qualifies as retired or will soon be retired — meaning they achieved at least 20 years of service — and anyone receiving retired pay is eligible to apply, the message states. Neither age nor disability, alone, would exclude a soldier from joining depending on the disability, and they would still have to meet the Army’s health requirements.
“There is no age limitation, although personnel older than 70 are not normally recalled,” the message states.
Those who apply for the program essentially lets the Army send them orders to return to active duty if a critical role opens that no one else can fill. However, the message does not authorize any special pay or incentives.
Read more here.
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