Wichita calls itself the Air Capital of the World. There is a reason. The city builds more aircraft than almost anywhere on earth. And four miles southeast of downtown sits McConnell Air Force Base. It is one of the biggest air refueling bases in the country.

That mix is a gift for a local employer. McConnell puts trained aviation talent into your backyard every year. Spirit AeroSystems, Textron Aviation, and a dense web of aerospace shops need that exact talent. But most companies never reach these airmen in time. They wait for a resume to show up. By then the best people are already taken.

This guide is for a hiring manager or recruiter at a Wichita company. You want to hire local veterans. You want them before your competitors do. Here is where that talent sits, what it can do, and how to reach it early.

Why is McConnell AFB such a strong source of local talent?

McConnell is home to the 22nd Air Refueling Wing. It belongs to Air Mobility Command. The base flies the KC-135R Stratotanker and the newer KC-46 Pegasus. These are big air refueling jets. Keeping them flying takes a deep bench of skilled people.

Two more wings share the base. The 931st Air Refueling Wing is an Air Force Reserve unit. The 184th Wing is part of the Kansas Air National Guard. The 184th runs intelligence, surveillance, and cyber missions. So McConnell is not just tankers. It also grows intel analysts and cyber operators.

Here is what that means for you. Every year, airmen at McConnell finish their service or hit the end of an enlistment. Many of them already live in the Wichita area. Their kids are in local schools. Their spouses work local jobs. They want to stay. You do not have to convince them to relocate. You just have to find them before they sign somewhere else.

How does McConnell talent map onto Wichita aerospace jobs?

This is the part that makes Wichita special. The talent leaving McConnell fits the jobs you are trying to fill. The match is almost too clean.

Wichita has more than 450 aerospace companies and suppliers. Spirit AeroSystems is the largest employer in the city, with more than 20,000 workers. Textron Aviation builds Cessna and Beechcraft planes. Bombardier Learjet, Airbus, and Boeing all have a footprint here too.

An Air Force aircraft maintainer who worked on a KC-135 already knows airframes, panels, and torque specs. A Spirit or Textron line job is not a stretch for that person. An avionics tech who fixed jet wiring can read schematics on day one. These are not entry-level hires you train from zero. They show up most of the way there.

The same goes for logistics. A fuels or supply airman who ran a flight line stockroom understands inventory, parts flow, and tool control. That maps onto warehouse, supply chain, and MRO support roles across the metro. If you run an aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul shop, the fit is direct. Our guide on hiring veterans for aircraft MRO facilities goes deeper on that path.

Why does a military resume read so differently?

Here is the snag. The skills match, but the words do not. A separating airman writes a resume in Air Force language. Your job posting is in civilian language. When the two do not match, good people slip past you.

Most companies screen resumes with software. An applicant tracking system racks and stacks resumes by keyword. It does not reject people. It just sorts them. A strong maintainer who wrote "phase inspections on KC-135 airframe" can sink to the bottom of your list. Why? Because your posting said "aircraft inspection" and "preventive maintenance." Same work. Different words.

So you have to read for the work, not the unit. Look past the acronyms. Ask what the person actually did. Then search both languages. Put the military term and the civilian term side by side in your req. Our guide on searching a veteran resume database walks through how to do this.

When should you reach McConnell talent?

Timing is the whole game. The worst time to start is when the person is already job hunting in public. By then they have offers. The best time is months before they separate.

Air Force members often know their separation date well in advance. A retiring senior NCO may know a year out. Someone ending an enlistment knows the rough window too. Many can use SkillBridge in their final months. DoD SkillBridge lets a service member train at a civilian company during their last 180 days of service. The military keeps paying them during that time.

That is a try-before-you-buy window for both sides. But read this part carefully. A SkillBridge intern is not a hire yet. They are still on active-duty pay. You do not owe them a full-time job. The offer comes after they separate. Used right, it is one of the cleanest ways to lock in talent early. If you want to host, our guide on sourcing veterans before their separation date covers the approach.

How do you reach McConnell veterans before they separate?

You do not wait for the right resume to land in your inbox. You go find it. That is the shift most Wichita employers need to make. Posting a job and hoping is not a plan. We wrote a whole piece on why posting a job is not a sourcing strategy.

Here is a simple sequence that works for a midsize company. You do not need a giant program or a national budget. You need to be early and clear.

A talent pool is the engine here. When you can search for separating airmen in your area, you stop waiting and start picking. That is the core of a real pipeline. Our guide on building a veteran talent pipeline before reqs open shows how to keep that engine running. And if you want to size up the local supply first, see how many veterans are in your local talent pool.

What about hiring incentives and clearances?

Two questions come up a lot. Let me clear them up.

First, tax credits. The Work Opportunity Tax Credit used to reward employers for hiring some veterans. But the WOTC expired at the end of 2025. It is not available for 2026 hires unless Congress renews it. Congress has brought it back after past lapses, and 2025 hires may still qualify. So check the current status before you count on it. Never base a hire on a tax break. Base it on the talent.

Second, clearances. The 184th Wing runs intel and cyber missions. Many of those airmen hold or held a security clearance. If your company does defense or government work, that matters. A cleared candidate can save you months and real money. A clearance is one of the most valuable things a McConnell veteran can bring through your door. Treat it as a premium skill, because it is.

What mistakes cost Wichita employers good veteran hires?

I have watched companies lose strong candidates over small, fixable things. Here are the ones that hurt most.

Wichita is a real city, not just a base town. The aerospace base is huge, but McConnell veterans bring more than wrench skills. Read each resume for the work, not the patch. For more on screening, see how to reach veterans before their separation date and how to search a resume database the right way.

How does the rest of Kansas fit in?

McConnell is not the only base feeding Kansas talent. The state has a strong military footprint, and each base sends people into the civilian workforce. If your hiring reaches beyond Wichita, it helps to know the map.

Fort Riley sits near Junction City and Manhattan. It is an Army post, home to the 1st Infantry Division. That talent skews toward logistics, vehicle maintenance, and combat leadership. We cover it in our guide on recruiting veterans near Fort Riley. Fort Leavenworth, up by Kansas City, is another Army hub with a different talent mix. See our guide on hiring veterans near Fort Leavenworth. Just south, Fort Sill near Lawton, Oklahoma adds field artillery and training talent. Our Fort Sill recruiting guide breaks that down.

McConnell stands apart from those Army posts. It is an Air Force base, and its people skew aviation and technical. For a Wichita aerospace employer, that is the closest fit you will find anywhere.

Where can a Wichita employer find this talent now?

You know where the talent is. You know what it can do. The last piece is a way to reach it before someone else does.

Best Military Resume is a veteran talent platform. Veterans and transitioning service members build their resumes here, then translate their military work into civilian terms. That means you can search people who fit your roles, in plain language you understand.

The pool keeps growing. We add over 1,000 new veteran profiles every month. More than 60,000 resumes have been built on the platform. The pool runs deep in aircraft maintenance, avionics, logistics, and frontline leadership. That is exactly the McConnell-to-Wichita match.

If you want to hire local veterans before your competitors reach them, reach out to access BMR's veteran talent pool. Want to set up a longer-term hiring relationship? You can also partner with us. Either way, the move is the same. Get to the talent early, while it is still in your backyard.