‘Guardians’ is the term that is used to describe Space Force members and many of them are not happy about it. They complain that nobody knows anything about them. In fact, not a lot of people know that they are now a new military branch, Military.com reports.
While the group was created to help guard and operate US satellites and spacecraft, its small size and passive nature have resulted in many people being unaware of its very existence. The ones who know about its existence, don’t really care for it.
“In a lot of ways, it’s still lumped with the Air Force,” Conor William Deans, a Space Force ROTC cadet, told the website. “It’s still new and hasn’t expanded its own culture yet, but I think that’ll grow and change.”
One confused observer asked, “Space Force? Is that real?” Deans recalled. “I tried to explain to him what it was, but he seemed even more confused.”
In one hilarious and illustrative example, a Space Force captain was denied a discount offered to active service members by Spirit Airlines because the ticket counter worker didn’t believe the branch existed.
“At the moment, I was flabbergasted,” the officer told Military.com. “We tried to take it on methodically and convinced him that the Space Force was real.”
Space Force Colonel Matthew Morand told the website that even his own friends and family don’t quite understand the military branch.
“I’ve had people ask me while I’m standing there in my military uniform, ‘Is Space Force a real thing?’” Morand said. “A lot of folks don’t understand what we do, and there aren’t many of us. We’re tiny.”
It is hoped that soon people will get to hear about it more and recognize it more.
The anti-satellite operations from countries like China and Russia are getting escalated and it seems completely sensible that the Space Force will become more important as it defends U.S space assets in the future.