General: Barksdale will grow

[unhappycamper]

General: Barksdale will grow
The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Dec 1, 2008 14:56:15 EST

SHREVEPORT, La. — Barksdale Air Force Base is likely to add about 750 jobs in the coming year as it increases its focus on flight training and reopens a weapons storage area, Lt. Gen. Robert J. Elder Jr. said.

The Air Force is expected to put a new B-52 squadron in North Dakota, but training should add 300 new full-time jobs at the Shreveport base.

Plans to reopen Barksdale’s weapons storage area will add 450 to 500 jobs. Barksdale also is among contenders to be headquarters of the new Global Strike Command, which could add between 750 to 1,000 people, Elder said late last week.

However, he cautioned, that filling the openings may be difficult — something he mentioned when Gen. Norton Schwartz, the new Air Force Chief of Staff, visited the base that week.

“One of the things we told the chief is we’re having trouble getting the qualified people we need for 8th Air Force today, so creating new billets doesn’t necessarily mean you get more people,” he said. “Finding faces to put in the spaces is another problem.”


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/12/ap_barksdale_120108/%2e