Air Force Col. Layne Trosper, plans and resources division chief for Air Force Recruiting Service, leads a salute on June 2, 2022, at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas, to Brig. Gen. Christopher Amrhein, the commander of the unit. (Gabriel Jones/U.S. Air Force)

WASHINGTON — The Air Force will miss its active-duty recruiting goal for the first time since 1999 by about 10%, Brig. Gen. Chris Amrhein said Wednesday.

“If we hadn’t deviated much from our former recruiting practices, this recruiting shortfall could have been much worse,” said Amrhein, who took over as the Air Force Recruiting Service commander in June.

The Air Force recruiting goal for fiscal 2023 was 26,877, but the service will miss it by about 2,700, Air Force Recruiting Service spokeswoman Leslie Brown wrote in an email.

In addition to the active-duty number falling short, Amrhein said the recruiting goals for the Air National Guard and Reserve will each come up short by nearly 30%.

Amrhein said he is still “cautiously optimistic” about seeing improvement in recruiting. Last September, the Air Force and Space Force announced a new pilot program that would grant certain applicants who test positive for THC a chance to retest and possibly join the ranks. THC is the main psychoactive component of marijuana.

Air Force Brig. Gen. Christopher Amrhein, commander of Air Force Recruiting Service, speaks June 2, 2023, at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas. (Gabriel Jones/U.S. Air Force)

“We realized with about three dozen states having legalized marijuana laws that this was not a policy that made sense,” Amrhein said. “Let’s make no mistake, drug usage has absolutely no place in our Air and Space forces. But allowing second tests in the recruiting process is the right thing to do.”

The policy change allowed about 165 airmen into the service, the general said. In March, the Air Force announced additional changes to policies for hand and neck tattoos, body fat standards, and college loan repayment programs for enlisted troops.

As a result, Brown said the Air Force was able to bring in more than 1,200 new airmen who would have been disqualified in the past.

Amrhein said the Air Force still faces long-term challenges such as expanding recruiter numbers and increasing people’s familiarity with the service and what it entails. The Air Force in April launched a “Go Blue, Stay Blue” campaign to encourage bases to open and have airmen and guardians engage with the community.

“After 9/11, and rightfully so, bases went very insular. This ‘Go Blue’ is about opening it back up and getting people back into the community to tell their story,” he said.

Amrhein said he learned Tuesday that the Pennsylvania Air National Guard has a civic partnership in which they opened their base to youth baseball. It included about 24 kids, with their parents and coaches, who came to the base for a weekend.

“They let them out on their fields ... they showed them their simulators that they fly. They opened up their dining facility for them to eat at and just kind of took a tour of the base,” Amrhein said. “Ideas like that is where we can really get the maximum effect out of ‘Go Blue, Stay Blue.’ ”

The service has added 91 new recruiters who will begin work between February and June after going through training and being matched with an assignment. The Air Force also added 16 people to its e-recruiter program, expanding from 5 to 21.

“I challenged the team to go, ‘Hey, can we grow this even more?’ There is a lot of opportunity in that space,” Amrhein said. “It has a national approach rather than a specific region. The combination of our lead refinement center and growing our e-recruiter program is something to work at in the coming year.”