â Only ticks that are attached and have finished feeding or are near the end of their meal can transmit Lyme disease. After arriving on the skin, the tick that spreads Lyme disease usually takes 24 hours before feeding begins. â Even if a tick is attached, it must have taken a blood meal to transmit Lyme disease.
All this in a period when the Air Force is the smallest and oldest since its inception in 1947. Of its roughly 5,000 aircraft, the average age is twenty-five years old. Todayâs Air Force is already struggling, and tomorrowâs is entirely at risk.
The proposed 2016 increase would be the first increase since the Air Force began steeply cutting its ranks under the 2014 force management program. The Air Force began fiscal 2014 with 330,700 active-duty airmen, and by Nov. 6, that number had dropped to 316,500. The 2015 levels of 312,980 are the lowest the service has ever had, except for 1947, its first year in existence, when it had 305,827 airmen.