PENTAGON: You’ve got to enjoy the remarkable efforts going into building the new Space Force. Since Congress created the new service in December last year, only Gen. Jay Raymond, chief of space operations, has been sworn in as a member. That’s because Air Force and other services’ officers must formally resign their commissions before being transferred to the Space Force, but they and the enlisted people must have defined jobs and pay scales before they can be assigned. And that requires Congress to pass laws governing the service.
Vice President Mike Pence congratulates General John Raymond after swearing him in as the first Chief of Space Operations
“The commissioning, enlistment and appointment of officers and enlisted members, much of that is controlled by law and statute by Congress,” Lt. Gen. David Thompson, vice commander of the U.S. Space Force, told reporters during an off-camera briefing. “We need to go through a process with Congress to have them provide authorization for specific names and specific individuals to transfer,” he said. “We’re working with Congress right now. That will take a little bit of time.”
There are at least 6,000 airmen waiting to be transferred to the Space Force and they should make the transition by the end of the year, Thompson said yesterday afternoon. Maj. Gen. Clint Crosier, director of space force planning, said most of those possess what he called “core skills” in space operations, intelligence, acquisition, engineering, training and doctrine.
The new service is also drawing directly on skills in the Army and Navy, and members of those services are expected to transfer to it in due course. Crosier said 24 Army and 14 Navy officers already work at Space Force headquarters. Those assignments are temporary, however. What will it take to design a process for them to resign their commissions and transfer to another service, one that doesn’t have a legal or regulatory structure of pay grades, specializations and ranks yet? Crosier said that will probably take up to a year to work out.
The new service is battling hard to figure out what to call its people. Obviously, they aren’t soldiers. They aren’t airmen. They aren’t sailors. And we seriously doubt they will be called space cadets. So the service’s leaders have reached out to the Defense Language Institute and other experts for help in crafting a suitably effective, useful and, dare we say it, euphonious name.
Dear readers, please feel encouraged to offer your own suggestions.
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