![us space force us space force](https://ih1.redbubble.net/image.585852137.8531/flat,1000x1000,075,f.u3.jpg)
![us space force us space force](https://4d0q7u11k31p1qnkosal8q2e-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Untitled-design.jpg)
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from. Replies to the tweet quickly filled up with jokes and GIFs mocking how the uniforms wouldn’t help Space Force do battle in outer space.Īnd then of course came the more existential question: Why did Space Force need a camouflage pattern at all, since none of its personnel would ever actually be fighting out beyond the mesosphere? The unveiling of its uniform and camouflage pattern, which looked shockingly similar to the uniforms worn by soldiers and personnel operating on Earth, quickly sent #SpaceForce trending on Twitter. Hardly a week passed before the nascent Space Force caused more internet ripples. The Air Force has long been seen as the most Christian of the services in one 2011 controversy, Air Force Academy cadets reported that they felt that had to pretend to be fundamentalist Christians to fit in at the school. To close observers of the military, Raymond’s explanation underscored one of the biggest fears about a new Space Force: That its culture would hew too closely to the Air Force out of which it grew. He was, they said, simply mimicking an Air Force tradition its first leader had been sworn in on a Bible that has been kept in the Air Force chief of staff’s office ever since, and signed by each of his successors. The cathedral quickly deleted the tweet, and the Space Force explained that general Raymond had never intended to swear-in all subsequent commanders with the Bible. It grew out of congressional frustration that the Air Force, with its pilot-driven culture, was not giving sufficient attention to securing the satellite communication networks that undergird so much of today’s economy, as well as the critical positioning, navigation, and timing assistance to that military drones planes, ships, and networked vehicles increasingly rely on. The creation of a new Space Force is among the most significant reorganizations of the military since the Goldwater-Nichols Act of the Reagan years, and the first addition of a new branch since the Air Force was broken out of the Army’s Air Corps in 1947. The only headlines Space Force has made so far have come amid jokes, memes, and controversies. Yet even if you missed the creation of the nation’s sixth military branch, it’s been hard to escape the jokes and criticism that have seemed to accompany Space Force since. All but buried in the onslaught of impeachment news and peaking tensions with Iran, Donald Trump scored one of his biggest legislative victories in the closing days of 2019: the creation of a stand-alone “Space Force,” a Pentagon recognition that the atmosphere far above our heads is an increasingly challenging and hostile environment for the military.