Air Force recruits most new airmen since Vietnam era

The Air Force brought on 33,645 new airmen in fiscal 2016, including enlisted, officers, chaplains and health professionals, the most since the Vietnam era.

In a Thursday release, the Air Force Recruiting Service called the number of assessments "historic" and said they helped the Air Force build its end strength from roughly 311,000 to about 317,000 personnel.

And the 31,761 enlisted airmen recruited last year smashed through the Air Force's previous projections.

Originally, the Air Force set a goal of recruiting 28,000 new enlisted, which would have been about 4,000 more than in fiscal 2015, when it recruited 24,137 enlisted. But after recruiting boomed in the first half of the fiscal year, Brig. Gen. Brian Kelly, the Air Force's director of military force management policy, said in April that enlisted recruitment was likely to hit 30,600. By August, Kelly was eve more bullish, predicting enlisted recruitment would top 31,000.