Diversity and Minority Accessions in the Air Force

The Air Force (AF) recently decided to close several Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) detachments across the United States. The reason given was to consolidate assets to better address the growing demand of manpower for detachments with growing enrollment. However, no mention was given to address the fact that detachments with low enrollment in recent years had historically produced the most minority AF officers from various backgrounds. The Air Force has made diversity one of the cornerstones to building a quality AF in the future, focusing on acquiring qualified new officers with many skill sets, primarily graduating with technical degrees. AF ROTC is one of the military's key mechanisms to acquire officers candidates from the cross culture of American society. Because the officer corps in the military is small compared to the enlisted corps, it is important to ensure a wide net is cast to offer as many potential, qualified candidates the opportunity at the college level. This will ensure a diverse and strong officer corps as other filters are introduced to enlist officers in targets fields.