In 2019, President Trump converted the U.S. Air Force Space Command into a new military service: The United States Space Force.
Its members will be known as “Guardians” rather than spacemen, and most have been transferred from the Air Force. New Guardians are being trained at Air Force recruit training facilities. Here is the mission statement: “The USSF is responsible for organizing, training, and equipping Guardians to conduct global space operations that enhance the way our joint and coalition forces fight, while also offering decision makers military options to achieve national objectives.”
Space Force members will continue the mission of their former organization, mostly keeping track of all the hardware in orbit and watching for incoming threats like asteroids and comets. They also expect to launch military missions from their new Space Force Bases at Vandenberg and Cape Canaveral. You can check the facts online at www.spaceforce.mil.
Right now, the Guardians are wearing Air Force uniforms, but I want to see something new; not StarFleet but more like EarthForce uniforms from “Babylon-5.” I’d also like to see Elon Musk design and build named-and-commissioned Space Force ships to be home-based in orbit or on Luna. Some day in the coming years, we might start seeing Space Force veterans joining our organizations!
American Legion Post 41 and Veterans Of Foreign Wars Posts 473 and 6337 will begin holding joint planning meetings starting at 1 p.m. this Saturday (Jan. 22) at the American Legion Post 41 meeting hall. We’ll be forming committees and seeking volunteers, planning menus and events for Armed Forces Appreciation Day, version 2.0, to be celebrated on Armed Forces Day on May 21 at the Texas County Fairgrounds.
Veterans organizations in Texas County:
•American Legion Post 41 meets at 6 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month at the meeting hall on the west end of Chilton Oil Company in Houston (just north of Pizza Hut). Changes to membership eligibility now allow U.S. veterans of all branches and periods of service to join the American Legion.
•Fleet Reserve Association Branch 364 meets at 2:30 p.m. on the fourth Sunday of each month at the American Legion Post 41 meeting hall in Houston. The FRA exists to serve all veterans and active-duty members of the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Coast Guard.
•Veterans Of Foreign Wars Post 473 meets at 10 a.m. on the second Saturday of each month at its meeting mall on U.S. 63 north of Cabool. The Post offers a free dinner from 4 to 7 p.m. on the fourth Wednesday of each month, open to everyone.
•The town of Licking has Veterans Of Foreign Wars Post 6337, with a meeting hall on Main Street just south of Highway 32. Information about meetings will be included in next month’s column.
Houston resident Robert E. Simpson is a retired U.S. Navy chief electronics technician who served from 1969 to 1990. Email gfjjkaa@gmail.com.