Recruiting school marks 50 years at Lackland

  • Published
  • By James Coburn
  • 37th Training Wing Public Affairs
LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFPN) --  More than 4.3 million people have joined the Air Force in the past 50 years through the efforts of enthusiastic recruiters trained at the Air Force Recruiting School here.

“Every recruiter has to come through this school first,” said Tech. Sgt. Lynn Bryan, one of 14 active-duty recruiting instructors at the school that is celebrating its 50th anniversary, along with the Air Force Recruiting Service.

Sergeant Bryan said the school’s 23-member staff also includes two Air National Guard instructors and one Air Force Reserve instructor.

The Air Force began recruiting its own Airmen July 1, 1954, but Lackland’s school began teaching its eight-week charter class of 20 enlisted recruiters and four officer recruiters eight weeks before that, on May 12, according to base newspaper articles published in 1954.

Sergeant Bryan found the articles while doing research to decorate the school’s entrance hallway with newspaper and magazine stories about Air Force recruiting in chronological order from 50 years ago through to 2004.

“I really enjoyed the research,” she said. “I love being a recruiter. I think it’s the most rewarding job I’ve ever had. And to learn about our history and just be a part of it is very, very rewarding for me.”

During the recruiter courses, now seven weeks long for active-duty recruiters and six weeks for Guard and Reserve recruiters, instructors teach enthusiasm, sales techniques and public speaking.

“We do a cheer, ‘Boy, am I enthusiastic!’ every morning when we first walk in the door, every hour on the hour, after every break and after lunch,” Sergeant Bryan said. “We teach that being enthusiastic and positive is important in order to have people gravitate toward you and help them believe that this is what they want.”

Sergeant Bryan said the most successful recruiters “have to first believe the Air Force has been a great choice for them and that they love the Air Force in order to help someone else make the choice to join the Air Force.”

The school has a training requirement of 589 active-duty recruiters, 96 Reserve recruiters and 72 Guard recruiters for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30.

Chief Master Sgt. Gerald Thayer, commandant of the school, said there are about 1,750 recruiters in the field today, including about 310 working to recruit officers.

According to an April 1, 1954, article in the Lackland Talespinner, Defense Secretary Charles E. Wilson authorized the Air Force to take full control of its own recruiting system, withdrawing from a joint Army-Air Force system. It was believed that more Airmen would remain for longer than a single tour if the Air Force signed up its own men. At the time, the Air Force was below its authorized strength of 970,000 men.

In June 1966, according to an article in the Air Force Recruiter magazine, Women in the Air Force recruiting coordinators were sending women to the WAF Sectional Board at Lackland for possible enlistment. Then in 1973, women became “full-fledged recruiters” instead of serving in their previous advisory roles.

A 1978 article in the Recruiter described the AIDA sales formula as “Attention to the applicants, get their Interest, assess the applicant’s Desires, and Action, finding the right position for the individual.”

The formula lasted until October 2002, when the Air Force adopted a new concept called Professional Sales Skills.

“It’s more of a kinder, gentler approach to sales,” said Sergeant Bryan, who was a recruiter for more than three years in her hometown of Phoenix before becoming an instructor a year ago. “It’s kind of a facilitator role, where we’re finding out what the young people are interested in and seeing if the Air Force can help them meet their goals. It’s a win-win for both.”

Recruiters who have first served for three years in the United States have the option of going back to their original jobs or moving up to a second-tier position, such as being an instructor, one of the 10 to 15 recruiters overseas in Hawaii, Europe, Puerto Rico or Guam, or as officer recruiters in the United States.