How to Recruit Veterans Near Barksdale AFB (Shreveport)

Barksdale Air Force Base sits right on the edge of Bossier City. It is one of the biggest employers in Northwest Louisiana. Every year, airmen finish their service there and stay in the Shreveport-Bossier area. They already own a home here. Their kids go to school here. They want to keep living here.

That is a talent pool most local employers walk right past. These are people who fixed bombers, guarded nuclear weapons, and ran supply for a strategic command. They show up early. They lead teams. They pass a drug test and a background check without blinking.

This guide shows Shreveport and Bossier employers how to reach that talent. You will learn what leaves the base, which of your roles fit, and how to read a military resume without getting lost in the codes. No giant program needed. A midsize company can win here by moving first.

Why is Barksdale AFB a talent pool for Shreveport employers?

Barksdale is not a small base. It is the home of the 2nd Bomb Wing, the oldest bomb wing in the Air Force. It flies the B-52H Stratofortress. It is also the headquarters of Air Force Global Strike Command and the Eighth Air Force. The 307th Bomb Wing, an Air Force Reserve unit, flies out of there too.

That mix matters for you. A bomber base needs more than pilots. It needs mechanics, weapons crews, security teams, supply pros, and command staff. It runs a nuclear mission, so the standards are high and the training is deep. People who work there get held to a hard line every single day.

When those airmen separate, most do not want to move across the country. They put down roots in Bossier and Shreveport. They look for work close to home. If your company is here, you are already sitting next to the pool. The problem is that most local employers do not know how to reach it or read it.

What kind of talent leaves Barksdale each year?

A bomber base and a strategic command build a wide range of skills. This is not just wrench turners. You get technical people, leaders, and problem solvers. Here is what tends to come off the base and into the Shreveport-Bossier job market.

Notice the leaders in that list. A staff sergeant with eight years in has often run a shift, trained new people, and owned real gear. That is a frontline supervisor you can hire today. You do not have to grow that skill from scratch.

Which local industries fit this talent best?

Shreveport-Bossier has a real economy behind it. The metro runs on oil and gas, manufacturing, casinos, healthcare, banking, and a growing defense and tech base. You can look up the current numbers on the Shreveport-Bossier economy page at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Many of those fields need the exact skills Barksdale builds.

The cyber and defense side is a clean match. Bossier City has grown a defense IT footprint over the years. Command staff and cyber airmen off the base slide right into those seats. Healthcare is another strong fit. A big system like Willis-Knighton hires for security, logistics, facilities, and team leads all the time.

The point is simple. You do not need a defense contract to hire this talent. A casino needs security and facilities. A hospital needs logistics and team leads. A shop floor needs people who follow a process and never skip a safety step. Barksdale turns those people out every year.

There is a retention angle here too. A veteran who already lives in Bossier or Shreveport is not going to move for the next job. They want to stay put. That means less turnover for you. You are hiring someone who is rooted in the area, not passing through. In a tight labor market, a candidate who plans to stay is worth a lot.

Why does the nuclear mission make Barksdale airmen a safe bet?

Barksdale is a nuclear base. Global Strike Command runs the bomber leg of the nation's nuclear force. That mission comes with trust screening most civilian jobs never touch. To work near those weapons, an airman gets deep background checks and drug tests on a regular basis. Many hold a security clearance.

For you, that means a candidate who has already been vetted hard. A person who worked around nuclear assets has passed checks that go well past a normal hire. They are used to strict rules, tight records, and no room for error. That habit does not fall off when they take off the uniform.

A few things to keep in mind here:

• A clearance can lapse after someone separates. Ask where it stands. It may still be current or need a refresh, depending on how long they have been out.
• The vetting habit stays even if the clearance goes cold. These people show up clean and stay clean.
• For cyber, defense, and site security roles, a clearance history can save you time and money on your own screening.

You do not need to run a cleared program to value this. A hospital, a bank, or a plant all care about people they can trust with sensitive access. Barksdale builds that kind of person by default.

How do you read a Barksdale airman's resume?

This is where most local hiring managers get stuck. A military resume comes in loaded with codes and jargon. An airman might list an Air Force Specialty Code like 2A5X4 or 2W0X1. To you that looks like a license plate. To the Air Force it is a whole career.

Do not skip a resume because of the codes. Learn to search both languages. A B-52 mechanic may write refuel and bomber aircraft maintenance when you were looking for a heavy equipment tech. A weapons airman may write munitions systems when you needed inventory control and safety. A base cop may list security forces when your posting says loss prevention.

Your software makes this worse. Most job software racks and stacks resumes by keyword. It does not reject people. It just sorts them. If your posting says "inventory" and the airman wrote "supply accountability," a great candidate can sink to the bottom of your list. So read the work, not just the words.

Same person. Two ways to describe the job. The airman on the left is a strong hire. You only miss them if you read the words and stop there.

Where do you find these veterans before they leave?

The best time to reach a Barksdale airman is before the last day. Once they separate, they scatter across job boards and your window closes. Get in early and you get first look. Here are the channels that work near a base.

Posting a job and waiting is the weakest of these. It works, but it puts you last in line. The transition office and SkillBridge put you first. That is the whole game near a base like Barksdale.

What mistakes do local employers make hiring veterans?

Most of the misses are small and fixable. You are not doing anything wrong on purpose. You just have not hired from a base before. Here are the most common ones, and how to fix each one.

Fix these four and you will pull ahead of most employers in the area. None of it costs money. It just takes a little know-how about how the base works.

How does BMR help you reach Barksdale talent?

BMR is where veterans build their resumes and get found by employers. That gives you a direct line to the people coming off Barksdale and out of the whole military. You do not have to decode every resume alone. The candidates come to you already searchable by skill and location.

The pool stays fresh. BMR adds more than 1,000 new veteran profiles every month. More than 60,000 resumes have been built on the platform. That is a steady, growing supply of veteran talent, and a good slice of it lives right here in Northwest Louisiana.

If you hire in Shreveport or Bossier, this pool is built for you. Reach out to access BMR's veteran talent pool and start finding candidates near Barksdale. Want to build a longer-term pipeline? Look at how to partner with BMR for ongoing hiring.

For more on the playbook, see our veteran recruiting strategy guide. To size up your local market first, read how many veterans are in your local talent pool. If you want to reach people who are not actively applying, our guide on reaching passive veteran candidates lays out the steps. You can also work the base directly with our guide to recruiting through base transition offices, or source online with sourcing veterans on LinkedIn.

Hiring elsewhere in the region too? We have local guides for Little Rock AFB in Arkansas, Fort Polk in central Louisiana, and Tinker AFB in Oklahoma City.