User blog comment:SomeoneYouUsedToKnow/SYUTK's V5Finale - Anti-Climax - Impressions/Recap/@comment-4136655-20180125234424/@comment-25936766-20180126004745

It was pretty clear he went to the board to see who was available, since no one on his list was and Qrow couldn't afford to be picky.

He spent the entire day, if not multiple days, searching around the city to see if there was any Huntsman available and either no one knew anything, or the person in question was MIA if not KIA, like Shields and Shiro.

And let me ask you something: The moment no one on his list was available, and just about everyone he looked for was unavailable, don't you think that if anyone was indeed available, he would've gone and tried to pick them up?

After all, even a couple of extra Huntsmen, even if they're nothing outstanding, would've been better than having no help at all (prior to Yang and Weiss showing up), especially for something as important as keeping the Relic of Knowledge away from Salem.

And in any case, he still spoke, both in Ep6, to Ozpin later on, and to Leo after he was revealed as a traitor, as if all of them were dead. All of them. And it wasn't in some vague manner like Salem's line regarding the Silver Eyes working on Cinder "cause she's a Maiden now".