The U.S. military’s newest branch just declared itself officially open for business with the release of its first-ever recruiting ad.
Unveiled today, the video is a well-produced sizzle of life in a service devoted to pushing everything previously known about our species’ Earth-bound capabilities.
“Maybe your purpose on this planet isn’t on this planet,” the narrator says in the video, which was shared alongside a link to the service’s recently launched career page.
A department of the U.S. Air Force, USSF was officially stood up in December upon President Donald Trump’s signing of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act.
The service opened the application period for active-duty U.S. Air Force personnel to transfer into its ranks on May 1.
“This is an historic time to be in the space business and I could not be more excited to extend the opportunity to our active duty Air Force members to officially transfer into the Space Force,” Gen. Jay Raymond, U.S. Space Force chief of Space Operations and U.S. Space Command Commander, said in a release.
“We have the unique opportunity to create a new service; your energy, passion and expertise will be critical to our success.”
The first substantial supplementation of the Space Force ranks came on April 18, when 86 graduates from the U.S. Air Force Academy were immediately assigned.
“Two years ago, President Trump laid out a bold vision for American leadership in space,” Vice President Mike Pence said at the graduation.
“Last December, the president made that vision a reality when he put his signature on a historic law that created the sixth branch of our armed forces, the United States Space Force. I am proud to stand here today as 86 members of the Air Force Academy’s class of 2020 will commission as the first company grade officers of the Space Force.”
Raymond told Military Times in March that the reassignment of nearly 16,000 Air Force personnel — including the Air Force Space Command’s top enlisted airmen — to the ranks of the new branch was being stalled by social distancing guidelines put in place in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chief Master Sgt. Roger Trowberman was officially sworn in on April 3 as Space Force’s first enlisted service member.
Towberman called the opportunity to transfer into the new branch “a personal decision for each individual, just as it was for me.”
“Each of us volunteered to serve, now we ask for volunteers to help build a new force that is tailor-made and laser-focused on joint warfighting and the space domain,” Towberman said.
The service describes its official mission as one that “organizes, trains, and equips space forces in order to protect U.S. and allied interests in space and to provide space capabilities to the joint force,” according to its career page.
Its “responsibilities will include developing military space professionals, acquiring military space systems, maturing the military doctrine for space power, and organizing space forces to present to our Combatant Commands.”
Much of that potential space power was flexed in the recruiting video, with a visual emphasis in the clip placed on space flight technology, astronautical operations, rockets, and of course, starry skies.
“Some people look to the stars and ask, ‘What if?’” the video’s narrator says. “Our job is to have an answer.” the narrator says.
Check out the video below.
J.D. Simkins is the executive editor of Military Times and Defense News, and a Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq War.
