Resilience and Dedication:
Journey and Resilience in the Space Force & Overcoming Personal Challenges & Dedication to Teaching and Making a Difference:
-I was one of the first, maybe the first interviewee for the Space Force Association many years ago… I never would have imagined getting this opportunity to be a Delta commander and share what we’re doing in the Space Force now.
-I had a falling out with my family when I was maybe 15-16 years old, and in fact, I struggled with suicide… I was homeless for about a year before trying to figure out what I wanted to do next.”
-I fell in love with that. And I fell in love with inner city kids that also didn’t have, you know, full homes… I worked harder as an inner city high school teacher than I ever done in uniform.
Professional Transition and Growth:
Transition from Civilian to Military Life & Creating a Culture of Trust and Safety within the Space Force & Combat Readiness and Preventative Strength
-Converted to military officer, went to officer training school back then and they shaved my head… I had to shift to learning how to run and learning how to march and learning the discipline of what it really meant to love my nation.
-Our primary focus is combat readiness. Not so that we have to go to war, but so that we don’t have to go to war… The strength that we show as a joint force helps anyone that would try to exploit weakness understand that that weakness doesn’t exist.
Innovation and Global Security:
Dependence on Innovation and International Collaboration & Importance of Industry Participation and Clarity in Solutions
-The truth is that we are so dependent on the innovation and the drive that the American people bring through industry, and certainly through our international partners in this economy.
-We don’t need solutions to everything. We only need solutions to certain parts of the problem because we have an incredible Space Force already.
-What we’re trying to do is not only ask industry to become part of the solution, but help be very clear on where they can be part of the solution.
-Partnering with nations increases capacity and increases trust… particularly in the Indo-Pacific region… due to concerns over China’s version of security.
Investment in the Next Generation and Youth Engagement
-I’m always going to go back to how are we investing in the young people? Because that’s where my heart’s at… how do we keep our lieutenants from specialists in the Space Force fired up about what we’re doing?
-How do we keep our lieutenants from specialists in the Space Force fired up about what we’re doing?
-We’re teaching a lot of those folks for the first time. Hey, this is what it means to be part of the team.
-I need to know what you can integrate into our Space Force today… I don’t have time to wait a few years.
-To get industry thinking a few years ahead of us and bringing those solutions to, certainly to the government but also to bring that solution to the community to academia.
Strategic Military Focus and Team Building:
The Role of Joint Doctrine and Warfighting Discipline & Leadership Philosophy and Team Building & Adapting to New Challenges and Opportunities
-This isn’t new. This is just basic joint doctrine… Understanding isn’t enough for a warfighter. We have to look for opportunities to exploit.
-There’s nothing that I brought that’s novel or new. I just brought my experiences from serving with the joint force into my command.
-We have to speak the same language. We have to look at the world in a way that we can translate what we do to the joint force, so they know we bring value to them.
On Space Domain Awareness
-Space domain awareness is three things: battlespace awareness, battlespace characterization, battlespace management… Those are three categories that require different amounts of data and innovation.
-Battlespace awareness is simply just knowing where things are… battlespace characterization is understanding the intent… and battlespace management is having enough custody and fidelity.
-One of the first things I did was… who else in the world is doing space domain awareness and orienting that awareness to achieve warfighting objectives
-Space domain awareness takes this idea of a domain and says, Hey, this is a security domain independent of other domains
-Space domain awareness is a competency… But battle management is a warfighting discipline that takes those competencies and makes them relevant and applicable.
-Space domain awareness gives us a very kind of non warfighter kind of way to partner with us… You can use space domain awareness just for that.