airforcetimes | Air Force officials on Friday told reporters that people are clamoring for information on how to join the military’s latest branch. The short answer is, they’re going to have to wait a while.
President Trump officially signed the Space Force into law Friday, but for now, all that means is everyone at Air Force Space Command will now be assigned to Space Force.
Over the next 18 months, officials said, the finer details of manning
and training the new branch will be hammered out and set in motion.
“It’s going to be really important that we get this right. A uniform, a
patch, a song ― it gets to the culture of a service,” said Air Force
Gen. Jay Raymond, the head of Air Force Space Command and U.S. Space
Command, who will lead Space Force until a chief of space operations is
confirmed by the Senate. “There’s a lot of work going on toward that
end. It’s going to take a long time to get to that point, but that’s not
something we’re going to roll out on day one.”
For now, the 16,000 active-duty airmen
and civilians who work at Air Force Space Command will be assigned to
the Space Force, but nothing else will change. Uniforms, a rank
structure, training and education are all to be determined, and for the
foreseeable future, Space Force will continue to be manned by airmen,
wearing, Air Force uniforms, subject to that service’s fitness program,
personnel system and so on.
defensenews | All
the fun cultural details — the Space Force emblem, what personnel will
call themselves, whether they wear Star Trek uniforms — are still being
formulated.
“It’s going to be really important that we get this right. A uniform. A
patch. A song. It gets to the culture of a service,” Raymond said. “So
we’re not going to be in a rush to get something, and not do that right.
There’s a lot of work going on towards that end. I don’t think it’s
going to take a long time to get that done, but that’s not something
we’re going to roll out on day one.”
Air Force bases centered around space operations — specifically
Peterson, Buckley and Schriever AFB in Colorado; Vandenberg AFB in
California; Patrick AFB in Florida and others — will likely be renamed
to reflect that they are Space Force bases, Raymond said.
The Space Force may also diverge from the Air Force’s organization into squadrons and wings, he said.
“We have an opportunity. We looked at and will continue to look at different organizational constructs,” Raymond said.
