The U.S. Space Force has received thousands of applications for transfer from current members of the military in the Army, Navy and Marine Corps, the branch’s Chief of Space Operations told the Washington Examiner.
''We’ve hand-picked about 6,400 people to join the Space Force, to transfer from the Air Force to the Space Force,'' said Chief of Space Operations Gen. Jay Raymond.
''We are now in the process of onboarding those and transferring them and putting them on the books of the Space Force,'' he added. ''We've had a significant response from the other services and, and I've had a significant number of applicants, in the thousands that want to transfer over.''
Raymond noted that he hopes that many of the more than 20,000 service members in other branches who focus on space-based functions will transfer.
''That's going well, I'm very pleased with where we are,'' he said.
These ''guardians'' will be tasked with performing specialized jobs in relation to cyberwarefare and space intelligence, and will be stationed at one of six operating bases located across the country. These include Colorado’s Peterson, Buckley, and Schriever Air Force bases, Vandenberg and Los Angeles Air Force bases in California, and Patrick Air Force Base in Florida.
There are currently 4,840 guardians in service, according to Space Force spokesperson Lynn Kirby, and about 10,000 additional Air Force and civilian personnel who have been assigned to the branch in an administrative capacity.
However, Heritage Foundation defense analyst John Venable told the Examiner, ''I certainly appreciate the want to assimilate people in a methodical manner, but for me, this is happening far too slowly.''
He added that "There are at least half of the satellites that do not belong to the Space Force within the Department of Defense,'' including about 23 that are operated by the Navy and Army and the 54 operated by the National Reconnaissance Office.
Venable also said that Space Force doesn’t need to offer any special bonuses or assignments to people who transfer, saying it’s not necessary because service members will want to get in ''on the ground floor'' of a new military branch.
''One is the opportunity to be on the ground floor of an organization that is obviously going to be important for the rest of the history of the United States,'' he said.
Venable compared the occasion to the creation of the U.S. Air Force in 1947.
''You have the opportunity to build and shape and direct the momentum of this organization. I think that's a huge incentive,'' he said. ''For Army personnel particularly, you will go into a much smaller pool of assets, one that that will be highly prized, and you will be part of a culture that is right now being developed.''
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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