Far be it for me to treat the vaunted institution that is the United States Space Force with anything less than the respect and admiration the 28-month-old military branch deserves in these, its toddler years. I am, in fact, shocked to learn that the extremely-well-thought-out brainchild of a man obsessed with toilet flushing is evidently slightly underbaked as an action-ready arm of our national defense. For instance: Can you believe, dear reader, that there is to date no such thing as a dedicated Space Force National Guard operation? Quelle horreur! No National Guard troops in space?? No no no, this is the sort of conspicuous lapse in strategic thinking that leaves us open to any number of space attacks from our space enemies!
Let’s thank our lucky stars (space) the galaxy brains (space, again) in the United States Senate are on the case!
This week, Sens. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) and Marco Rubio (Fla.) crossed the terrestrial aisle to join in heavenly bipartisanship with the introduction of the Space National Guard Establishment Act, a seven-page bill that seeks to rectify a glaring omission in the force’s organizational structure. As the pair explained in a press release Wednesday:
Active-duty space units in 2019 were moved out of the Air Force and placed in the new Space Force upon its establishment, but no corresponding move was made to create a Space Force National Guard component. Today there are more than 1,000 National Guard members performing the space mission from within the Air National Guard, which creates organizational problems now that the rest of the space enterprise falls under Space Force. This bill does not expand the force, but corrects this misalignment.
Whew!
The bill, a companion measure to one already introduced in the House this past August by Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), essentially serves as a bureaucratic realignment to ensure that the Air Force keeps working in the air, while the Space Force can continue to operate in space, with fewer crossed wires and administrative logjams.
“Without a National Guard component for Space Force, we risk losing many talented individuals who want to keep serving their country and their states after they leave active duty, and that is simply unacceptable,” Feinstein said in her release. “Creating a Space Force National Guard would also save money and ensure a smoother process in the event we need to activate personnel. Not establishing a Space National Guard was a mistake when Space Force was created, and this bill will remedy that.”
While I’m loathe to cede that there were any mistakes committed when the perfectly conceived, expertly executed Space Force was created way back in those halcyon days of 2019, I’m just glad that there are lawmakers with their heads far enough in the clouds — and beyond! — to do the right thing now.
Space Force. Space National Guard. These are real things that actually exist, or soon will. Incredible. Blog over.
