Air Force seeking relief for stretched troops

Jace Radke

Friday, May 31, 2002 | 9:28 a.m.

While in Las Vegas to speak to a national Hispanic organization about recruiting, Dr. James Roche, Air Force secretary, said he won't forget the already active military personnel who are fighting the war on terrorism.

Roche, who was at Bally's Thursday to address the National Image conference, said he and his staff are working hard to release active and reserve forces that have been forced to work extra tours of duty since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.

"In the month of June we will be looking at it and trying to find a way to relieve some of these people," Roche said. "We're conscious of the fact that if we don't treat these folks well it will permeate to our recruiting."

At Nellis Air Force Base more than 1,000 active duty personnel are currently in "stop loss" status, meaning they are not allowed to leave the Air Force if they reach retirement age or their discharge date. There is a waiver process that personnel can go through if they are scheduled to leave the military, but stop loss will continue until global tensions ease, said Michael Dominguez, Air Force assistant secretary for manpower and reserve affairs.

"We haven't really been getting many complaints because I think people realize that they are needed, but we don't want it to go on for too long," Dominguez said. "There are just certain areas that we are now stressed, and we know we need more people in those areas. We'll be looking at doing some restructuring and moving people from bureaucratic jobs to fill our needs."

Intelligence, engineers, pilots, combat air controllers and security forces are among the areas that are currently on stop loss.

"Our police are among the most stressed groups right now because they are having to work on two fronts when they are only sized for one," Dominguez said. "We need them deployed to guard our operations and personnel overseas, and at the same time they are charged with guarding our home bases."

Attracting new recruits through partnerships with organizations like National Image, a nonprofit group committed to the improvement of employment for Hispanics, is one way that the Air Force plans on helping to alleviate stop loss in the future, Roche said.

"We're hungry for talent, and I don't care about the package it comes in," Roche said. "The Air Force never had to advertise for recruits until about two or three years ago, but now we want to get our percentage of the talent that is out there in every community."

Roche said that it is likely that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have played some part in helping to boost recruiting, but how big a role is not quantifiable.

"It's hard to assign causality," Roche said. "Our inquires have gone up, and we are meeting our recruiting goals."

Roche also said that the planned privatization of many homes on military bases, including Nellis, is much needed, and will be a positive factor on retention.

"It gives us a chance to modernize family housing without having to wait for Congress to appropriate the money," Roche said. "My boss, (Defense Secretary) Donald Rumsfeld, would like to get it done faster, but we're going to do it in a measured way to make sure that we aren't putting any airmen out on the street while we build them new houses."

A developer should be in place at Nellis next year to begin work on building or remodeling a total of 1,433 homes and apartments. The work is scheduled to be spread over six years.

Roche said there are no base closings or cutbacks on the immediate horizon.