The interest from potential female recruits in six combat jobs newly open to them is running high, the Air Force Recruiting Service said.
"Our chat lines [both phones and online] are already lighting up right now, so the interest is definitely out there," Chief Master Sgt. Charles Lamer, AFRS command chief, told Air Force Times a week after Defense Secretary Ash Carter's Dec. 3 announcement lifting the ban on women serving in combat.
"It's exciting to know that the feedback is extremely positive," Lamer said.
And the recruiting service is getting ready to start bringing women onboard.
Recruiters will start assessing qualified female candidates Jan. 2, after the 30-day congressional waiting period expires. After that, the Air Force will follow the standard process for recruiting, assessing, selecting, training and assigning women into the newly opened jobs.
The AirForce.com recruiting website is being redesigned and updated. Part of the redesign, which will launch in late January, will be to drop the "males only" language from career descriptions. Printed material on these jobs is also being updated to reflect the change.
Aside from that, Lamer said, recruiters aren't changing much to bring women onboard. Female recruits will have to meet the same standards as men, he said.
The Air Force has been struggling with "significantly high" and "unsustainable" washout rates for recruits into special operations and combat support career fields, Lamer said. To help make sure the Air Force is bringing in recruits who are going to make it through the grueling training process for those jobs, the recruiting service has launched a program called the Scout/Recruiter/Developer Model.
Under this program, patterned after a similar program the Navy uses for SEALs and other special operators, current pararescuemen, combat controllers, or other battlefield airmen or special operators will be loaned out as "scouts" and visit high schools or other locations alongside recruiters, Lamer said.
Having actual PJs or other battlefield airmen talk to potential recruits accomplishes two things, Lamer said. First, the young candidates are likely to be more interested in hearing about their direct experience, such as war stories, and more likely to consider the Air Force's recruiting message. And second, the scouts can get a feel for which potential recruits have the drive and personality required to stick to their commitments.
"It's not just about the person who has the physical brawn," Lamer said. "They've got to have the right mindset, and it's got to be in their heart. That's a tough thing to measure, but the folks in these communities have a unique way to kind of sense whether a person has the right mentality and the right drive which is going to be instrumental in them making it through the training. Having that scout is going to be instrumental in allowing recruiters to better fish in the right ponds."
The Air Force is also using former airmen or reservists as developers, to help airmen work on physical skills such as swimming, running, pullups, or other requirements where they may be weak.
That model, which launched in early fiscal 2016, was in the works before the decision on women was announced. But now that these jobs are open to women, Lamer said the timing could not be better.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
