Book excerpt: The U.S. Air Force's special operations and combat support specialties in the enlisted force are among the highest in demand by the service yet have persistently high rates of attrition in their initial skills training, which is called "technical training" in the Air Force. These high-demand, high-attrition (HDHA) specialties include Combat Control; Explosive Ordnance Disposal; Pararescue; Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape; Special Operations Weather Team; and Tactical Air Control Party. The Air Force has conducted or sponsored several efforts to address training attrition in these specialties over the past several years, yet training attrition remains high. The reasons for high training attrition are interrelated, with size and quality of the recruiting pool, utility of screening tools, and training environment factors all playing a role. This report addresses the broader challenges for implementing new approaches to HDHA specialty recruiting, screening, and development of Air Force candidates, and takes a holistic approach to identifying methods and tools to ll gaps in current processes