Calling All Civilians: JBER, Eielson recruiting for hundreds of job openings--no elistment necessary.

• Author: Joyal, Brad

Alaska's military bases are looking to make new hires at a rapid pace. Between Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson's (JBER) influx of nonappropriated funds (NAF) jobs and Civilian Personnel openings and Eielson Air Force Base's available jobs tied to the new F-35 beddown, there are hundreds of military jobs available throughout the state. And many of them don't require any affiliation with the military.

In July, JBER's public affairs office issued a news release in which human resource directors estimated there are roughly 330 positions to fill between its NAF jobs--which are positions that don't require approval from Congress--and additional openings in the Civilian Personnel office.

Although the open positions at JBER involve working on the base, the bulk of them are entry-level positions that welcome civilians even if they have little knowledge about military operations.

So Many Open Positions?

It's not that civilians are leaving their military jobs in droves; the industry is simply growing at a swift pace throughout the state. Meghan Govin, who serves as JBER's human resources director for NAF jobs, describes the hiring boom as a necessary move to keep up with the base's growing population.

"The base has just gotten to be a big population," Govin says. "With our population on the base growing in regards to having to serve more military. it has increased some of our positions--our childcare positions and more at the lodging facility. When it comes to our seasonal positions, those [openings] are to just make sure we have enough bodies on hand to take care of everything. We have the golf course in the summer, and during the winter we have our Hillberg ski resort, so it can get a little bit crazy."

The Eielson Air Force Base Regional Growth Plan, commissioned by the Fairbanks North Star Borough last fall, concluded that 532 new housing units would be needed by 2022 around North Pole to accommodate the growth and demand coming from F-35 families. The F-35s are bringing additional civilian positions to Eielson, so the base has also been working to trim its vacancy rate by filling various openings over the past decade.

"While bedding down the F-35s and its additional 108 civilian positions is special in its own right, Eielson has been experiencing nearly a 25 percent vacancy rate of its roughly 400 civilian billets for over a decade," says Howard Rixie, chief of the civilian personnel flight, 354th Force Support Squadron. "With the coming of the...