Recruiting focuses on select career fields

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Danny Monahan
  • 5th Bomb Wing Public Affairs
MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. (AFPN) --  The Air Force continues to recruit high quality people while using force-shaping efforts to keep people in critical career fields, the Air Force Recruiting Service commander said during a recent visit here.

Brig. Gen. Robertus C.N. Remkes said the Air Force is striving to “balance the books” by moving people from overmanned Air Force specialties and filling vacancies in traditionally hard-to-fill jobs.

“What were doing is focusing on 58 (career fields) that are critical and we know are undermanned,” said General Remkes. “Hopefully in a month or so, we’ll get some guidance from the Air Staff so we can open up other (career fields). There are a lot of people who don’t qualify for those 58 (specialties).”

Plans to cut Air Force manpower by more than 20,000 will not impede the way the service recruits highly motivated people, General Remkes said.

“The Air Force has never stopped looking for high-caliber recruits,” he said. “We have always taken highly qualified people.”

Every career field requires certain aptitudes from each person the service recruits, the general said.

“Take a pararescueman or a combat controller. Those are very difficult (specialties) for people to qualify for. [It is very difficult] to make it all the way through tech training because there are a lot of physical demands [and] a lot of school demands so that they know everything they need to survive in a combat situation,” he said. “Those are two examples where we’ll always go for the most qualified individuals.”

To get those top-notch recruits, the Air Force launched a new advertising campaign to heighten awareness and let the nation know the service needs people with good skills and outstanding character.

“We want young Americans in high school to be aware that there is an Air Force looking for them to ‘cross into the blue,’” the general said. “If we didn’t have those commercials, a lot of people wouldn’t know the Air Force is even hiring.”

Recruiting has changed immensely since he graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1977, General Remkes said. Back then, recruiters' tools were limited, he said.

“I remember recruiting back then was essentially a recruiter who would show up to a school with a small table with maybe a cup with some pencils in it and a little sign that read ‘Air Force.’" General Remkes said.

“Essentially, the recruiters … were our tools. They were our awareness campaign,” he said. “They did all the nuts and bolts of getting a kid on track and showing (him or her) how to get into the Air Force.”

Recruiting today is constantly changing to keep up with competition.

“Today, we have to compete with (cable TV) to get a kid’s attention. We also have to compete with kids’ time in school and sports,” the general said. “We have to let people know we’re out there, and that’s what the commercials are designed to do.”

However, recruiting does not end with commercials and recruiters. Each Airman can help bring in high-caliber people by sharing his or her Air Force experiences with others in the community, he said.

“(Airmen) have an obligation to tell the Air Force story to all those [civilian] folks they know. I would like to ask them, when appropriate, to wear their uniform when they bring Johnny or Sally to soccer,” General Remkes said. “A lot of their neighbors might not know they are in the Air Force or their kids might not know Johnny’s or Sally’s dad or mom is in the Air Force. It gives young kids a chance to understand ‘gee what great people they are and what brought you to the Air Force or how can I join.’ ”

“I encourage everyone in the Air Force to support other noble things in the community such as Scouting or Civil Air Patrol or whatever their personal desires are, and to make those kids aware of the wonderful opportunities available in the U.S. Air Force. They can help me with my recruiting mission by doing just those simple things.”