A new type of Air Force recruiting center that will consolidate existing offices into one regional facility will open in central Arkansas in fiscal 2016, according to the Air Force Recruiting Service headquarters.
The Air Force began replacing its small recruiting centers with regional hubs called "flight-centric offices" in 2013. Annette Crawford, a spokesman for the Air Force Recruiting Service, said in an email that the purpose of the move toward larger facilities is to create better support for recruiters and save money by grouping resources.
Gen. Robin Rand, commander of the Air Force component responsible for recruiting, said at a September conference that there were about 1,100 small recruiting offices in the United States, and most of them were run by one or two airmen.
Thirteen offices are in Arkansas.
"We've got 70 percent of our recruiters are singletons, by themselves in these offices. So we're going to work on changing that," Rand said.
Rand said the Air Force would eliminate about 700 offices by 2018.
Crawford said the Air Force was "beefing up" recruiting and that the larger offices would lead to "higher team performance for our recruiters."
According to budget requests released in February, the Air Force wants to add more than 4,000 active-duty and 2,600 reserve airmen in fiscal 2016 -- the first increase in personnel since it began cutting its ranks in 2014.
The authorized number of active-duty airmen for 2015 was 312,980, which Department of Defense officials have said is the smallest the Air Force has been since the service was established in 1947.
The proposal does not include spending cuts, known as sequestration, which would require the Air Force to cut about $10 billion from the budget.
"In these fiscally challenging times, our biggest leadership challenge is making sure we recruit and retain the skilled and selfless Airmen who are needed to meet the Air Force's core mission requirements," the budget proposal states.
The U.S. government published an advertisement in January asking to lease a 2,400-square-foot retail space in Jacksonville near U.S. 67/167. The advertisement stated that the Air Force wanted to have access to the facility by September, and it asked for a minimum five-year lease.
Crawford said several locations in Jacksonville and North Little Rock are being considered.
The Arkansas facility will be the first regional hub to open in the area overseen by the 345th Recruiting Squadron. The squadron, located at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, commands 39 offices and 91 personnel in central and southern Illinois, eastern Missouri, western Tennessee, northern Mississippi, central and eastern Arkansas, and Paducah, Ky.
So far, nine flight-centric offices have opened across the nation, and 10 more will open in the next few months, Crawford said. Fourteen more are scheduled to open later in the year.
Eventually, the hubs will be located throughout the U.S. and in Puerto Rico.
"Our plan is to build 25 flight-centric offices per year through completion, pending funding," Crawford said.
It is not clear which existing offices will consolidate into the larger facility. Crawford said any of the Arkansas-based offices under the oversight of the 345th Recruiting Squadron could be closed. Those offices are in Conway, Jonesboro, Little Rock, Pine Bluff, Searcy and Jacksonville.
Metro on 03/15/2015