Sunday, July 29, 2001

Air Force program strives to halt
enlisted exodus to private sector

By Marni McEntee, Kaiserslautern bureau

RAMSTEIN AB, Germany — For the past few years, the Air Force has struggled to keep its best and most experienced airmen.

Too many enlisted airmen, who leaders say feel overlooked and unappreciated, have traded their uniforms for civilian clothes.

The most worrisome trend is the exodus of what top leaders consider the force’s backbone: senior noncommissioned officers.

"They’re saying ‘OK, we’re walking with 15, 16, 17 years in the Air Force and nobody’s paying attention to us,’" said Senior Master Sgt. Kimberly Trost, the career assistance adviser for the 86th Airlift Wing in Ramstein.

"We can’t take our career airmen for granted," Trost said.

Out of nearly 300,000 enlisted airmen serving today, more than 193,000, or 69 percent of the enlisted force, will decide some time over the next three years whether to stay or go, an Air Force report released in June states.

During a visit to Ramstein last week, Gen. Michael E. Ryan, Air Force chief of staff, said that retention is one of the most important issues facing the Air Force.

About a year ago, the Air Force developed the Career Assistance Advisor program — with 90 advisers around the globe — to run triage and stop a potentially crippling hemorrhage. The program replaces the old base career counselor positions that were eliminated during the massive drawdown in the early 1990s.

But problems persist.

"With a robust economy, the potential exists for large numbers to migrate to the civil sector," the report stated.

In May, re-enlistment rates for career airmen with more than 10 years in the service hit a low of 89 percent. The Air Force goal is 95 percent.

Annual re-enlistment rates for career airmen have fallen short of that goal since 1998.

If the Air Force can figure out a way to retain this well-trained force, it could staunch a retention problem blamed on the pull of eager civilian job recruiters, potentially higher pay and hopes for better job satisfaction.

"They’ve got experience. They’ve got know-how. They’re highly marketable and the civilian sector is coming at them full force with very aggressive recruiting tactics," Trost said of career airmen.

Although the civilian job market is not as lucrative as it was during the high-tech and dot-com boom of a few years ago, employers are still on the prowl for valuable workers, said Dick Jeffreys, chief of staff and operations manager for The Destiny Group. The San Diego-based company specializes in pairing ex-military people with civilian employers.

"What we’re all about is trying to convince the companies that a military person brings things that you don’t get from someone straight out of high school or college," Jeffreys said.

"They have leadership or management skills, a strong work ethic, they know to be on time and do the job they’re required to do and work until it’s done. They’re not time-clock punchers and they generally come drug-free."

Another specialist in work force trends agreed.

"Employers are in desperate need of people who can get the job done," said Roger Herman, chief executive officer of the Herman Group, based in Greensboro, S.C.

And many airmen want a job, whether in or out of the force, which offers them more than a regular paycheck.

Senior Airman Andrew Pelton, who recently attended a CAA briefing sponsored by Trost, said he already is scanning the civilian job market, preparing for the end of his enlistment term in about 18 months.

Pelton facilitates mission planning, aircrew training and country monitoring for the 86th Operations Support Squadron’s intelligence flight.

His squadron’s job is so varied that he feels as if he’s become a "jack of all trades and master of none," Pelton said.

"If I can’t be an expert in something, I don’t want to do it," he said. "Job satisfaction is 100 percent of my decision."

Retaining first- and second-term airmen like Pelton remains a priority across the service.

"We’ve got to do something," Trost said. "That’s all there is to it."

These airmen, who have completed between four and 10 years of service, are at a critical point in their careers.

The career adviser force serves as a defense against people leaving, Trost said. Eventually, the Air Force plans to put at least one adviser on each base and up to two at bases with populations of 5,000 active-duty airmen.

The Air Force vision for the program, however, doesn’t place the burden for turning retention around entirely on the advisers’ shoulders.

"The other part of my job is to make sure that supervisors know what to do when a troop comes to them and says ‘OK, I’ve done my time and I wanna get out,’" said Senior Master Sgt. Chuck Blakeslee, the career adviser at RAF Lakenheath, England.

Those first sergeants and master sergeants are the ones who really know the troops, understand their family pressures and know that airman’s skills. But they might not know how to turn that information into a "yes" vote for the Air Force.

"I’ve had supervisors call me and tell me ‘I have no idea where to start,’" Blakeslee said. "I give them a toolbox on how to handle those questions."

Every airman in Trost’s recent briefing was within 18 months of making his or her decision whether to re-enlist. Most were first- and second-term airmen.

"I’m not here to try to convince you to re-enlist in the United States Air Force," Trost told the airmen. But, she later added, "We hope to see an improvement in retention rates for certain [Air Force specialties.]"

So far, progress is slow, Trost said. Her briefing drew few people, even though attendance was encouraged by the wing commander.

Speakers show slides outlining the tangible benefits of being in the military, such as free health care, free physical fitness facilities, housing allowances and use of the commissary.

Other incentives are more intangible: Clear-cut promotion opportunities, early leadership responsibilities, job security and being held to a higher level of conduct than the "average" American citizen.

Options for retraining and Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard opportunities are also explained.

It was a lot of information to digest in six hours. But it may have made the difference for Senior Airman Anthony Krebs, a vehicle operations manager for the 86th Materiel Maintenance Squadron in Sembach, Germany.

"I want to know every option that’s available," said Krebs, 29. "My decision is more about what I still want to do in the Air Force than about getting out."

RELATED STORY:
          Job dissatisfaction cited as top reason why airmen leave

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