Air Force Refocuses 'Zero Week' of Boot Camp in Hopes of Getting More Recruits Through

Air and Space Force recruits’ first five days of basic military training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, will be different starting next month as the services focus on stress management, nutritional guidance and sleep hygiene to increase the odds of those recruits getting through.

The changes, set to take place the first week of October, will reorganize many of the existing classes that teach airmen and Guardians the basics of physical fitness, training and wellness throughout the 7½ weeks of boot camp and front-loads their first five days — called “zero week” — with that information.

Keeping airmen and Guardians in the service and making sure they make it through basic military training has become a top priority for the Department of the Air Force as it grapples with one of the toughest recruiting environments in decades.

“By aligning training modules together that address human performance factors such as sleep hygiene, stress management and nutrition, along with allowing trainees to build relationships with their teammates, we can directly impact a trainee’s path,” Lt. Col. Daniel Cassidy, director of human performance for the 37th Training Wing, said in a press release. . . .

. . . . Earlier this month, at the Air and Space Force Association’s conference at National Harbor, Maryland, Secretary Frank Kendall said the service is on track to miss its recruiting goal this fiscal year, which ends this weekend, by 10%.

The last time the Air Force did not reach 100% of its recruitment goal was 1999, according to the Air Force Recruiting Service. . . .

. . . . As the Department of the Air Force pushes its new philosophy of establishing “multi-capable airmen” — meaning it wants to have troops able to take on more responsibilities so they can carry out missions with fewer people — the new exercise develops trainees for a variety of missions in their careers, including “base operating support functions,” the release said. . . . (read more on Military.com)