First call-to-service airmen graduate

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RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFPN) --  The first person to enlist into the Air Force under the National Call to Service program graduated from Basic Military Training on Nov. 14 at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.

Airman Hector Barreto of Ingleside, Texas, joined seven other airmen graduating who were among the first to take advantage of the Air Force's 15-month active-duty enlistment. Following graduation, Barreto will train in the security forces career field.

“Basic training was great,” Barreto said. “I’m even more motivated now than when I joined.”

“I am so proud of him; just so proud,” said Baretto’s mother, Gladys Bell Barreto. “It was a beautiful ceremony.”

National Call to Service is a congressionally mandated program passed as part of the 2003 National Defense Authorization Act. The program's enlistees comprise 1 percent of the Air Force’s fiscal 2004 goal of 37,000 enlisted accessions. They incur the same eight-year military-service obligation as traditional four- and six-year enlistees.

The 15-month active-duty enlistment period begins after the completion of basic and technical training. The initial enlistment is followed by either a 24-month active-duty extension or selected regular Reserve duty. The recruit chooses how he or she spends the remainder of the military-service obligation -- active duty, selective regular Reserve, inactive Ready Reserve or other national-service programs designated by the secretary of defense.

The recruits will serve in one of 29 career specialties and receive one of three incentives that include a $5,000 bonus, $10,000 in college-loan repayment, or education benefits mirroring the Montgomery GI Bill program, officials said.