The Air Force is developing a new strategy to improve recruitment of special operations and combat support airmen.

Those career fields have critically high and unsustainable attrition rates, said Lt. Gen. Darryl Roberson, the new head of Air Education and Training Command. The new program, called the Scout/Recruiter/Developer model, seeks to find candidates who are more likely to succeed in those career fields, get them qualified for service, and develop them physically and mentally to prepare them for their initial training courses.

Air Force Recruiting Service, which is part of AETC, is partnering with Air Force Special Operations Command and Second Air Force on the program.

AETC also encompasses basic military training, which in 2012 was embroiled in a massive sexual misconduct scandal in which 35 military training instructors were charged with mistreating trainees and 26 of whom were found guilty or pleaded guilty in courts-martial.

The Air Force has gone three years without a charge of sexual assault or sexual misconduct against instructors, Roberson said.

No unprofessional sexual relationships between MTIs and trainees have been substantiated since the end of August 2012, Lt. Gen. Darryl Roberson said in written responses to questions from Air Force Times.

"I'm confident AETC is in a far better place today," Roberson said. "We prevent sexual misconduct and unprofessional relationships by living as airmen of character — doing the right thing no matter who's looking — and treating each other with respect and dignity."

As a result of the scandal, AETC requires instructors to remain at least an arm's length apart from trainees. It also removed beds from instructors' offices, placed anonymous comment boxes in stairwells, and began teaching trainees how and when to report a potential sexual assault, among other changes.

Although AETC has made progress, Roberson said the Air Force can't become complacent. "We have to continually show what right looks like," he said.

Roberson also said the Air Force Recruiting Service is working to enact changes that will improve recruiters' quality of life. A study to make sure it has the right number of recruiters is finishing up. A point-based incentive program — which Roberson said "was largely ineffective" and "inspired a goal-at-all-cost culture" — was ended in June, and will be replaced by a new system that focuses on innovation, camaraderie and core values.

"More than 70 percent of recruiting personnel surveyed as part of the study strongly agreed that time spent on the competition would be better spent on other mission priorities," Roberson said.

And AFRS in August began testing a new call center that will allow any potential recruit, or someone such as a teacher who can influence a young person to enlist, to reach a recruiter at any time. The call center will "ensure 100 percent contact for any future applicant/influencer, so they can never say 'I can't reach an Air Force recruiter,'" Roberson said.

Roberson also said the Air Force is continuing work on acquiring the new T-X training aircraft, which will replace the T-38 and be able to train pilots on advanced aircraft such as the F-22 and F-35. The Air Force released its requirements for the T-X to industry in March.

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.

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