The new uniforms for the United States Space Force are garnering a lot of attention, but not a whole lot of it is positive.Some on Twitter are equating the uniforms and insignias to things reminiscent of Star Wars, Babylon 5, Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica. Most, however, are simply criticizing them.
Established in December 2019, the Space Force is the newest branch of the U.S. military and is tasked with operating in outer space and defending the nation in space warfare. The USSF is formally part of the Department of the Air Force and is overseen by the secretary of the Air Force, who reports directly to the secretary of defense.
While the notion of a Space Force is decades old, it became part of the pop culture zeitgeist in 2020 thanks to the Netflix series of the same name starring Steve Carell. In fact, there was even a report one month after the series debuted that the U.S. military could lose the Space Force trademark to Netflix. "At this time, we are not aware of any trademark conflicts with the fictional program Space Force produced by Netflix," an Air Force spokesperson said. "We wish Netflix and the show’s producers the best in their creative depiction of our nation’s newest branch of the military."
Many others have taken issue with Space Force for various reasons. In August 2020, Star Trek veteran William Shatner wrote, "Dear United States Space Force, I have a question to ask, if it's OK. I'm just a nobody here but I was wondering; is it true that the commanding officer onboard a 'Space Force' ship is designated a Colonel & not a Captain? Is this up for debate? I think I'd like to debate the issue." The U.S. Navy was quick to retort, tweeting, "We did have the original USS Enterprise."
At the end of 2020, it was announced that Space Force personnel would be dubbed "Guardians." However, the USSF received numerous other name suggestions, many of which were clearly meant to troll the organization, such as Wookies, Guardians of the Galaxy, Skywalkers, Starlords, Celestials and Space Avengers.
Source:Â Twitter