I was going to say that Arthur C.Clarke had a short story “The Guardian”, but a check says “The Sentinal”. “Sentinels” would work.
This isn’t Starship Troopers, this is more like Heinlein’s Space Patrol, trying to limit war rather than fight war. As detailed in “Space Cadet” and the short story “The Long Watch”.
Hey, at least it’s not another case of right wing assholes appropriating Tolkien, right?
“Hi, everyone, wait, what did you say??”
Somewhere around here I still have my dad’s Tom Corbett Space Cadet decoder card from c. 1950 or so. So I’m all ready to go!
Are you really surprised at the lack of originality? Hell, they stole their whole schtick from an angry guy in the 1930’s
AIUI, they are using Space Cadet for recruits in training .
Ugh. I’m still hoping that Biden just rolls these guys back into the Air Force and saves the taxpayers some rogers, er, bucks.
I vote for starship troopers
Albert Fitzwilliam Digby of the Interplanet Space Fleet, batman to Colonel Dan Dare of the same, held the rank of Spaceman 1st Class.
(In the course of researching this, I discovered that Dan Dare was a Manc, which has shaken me more than it should.)
It’s funny to read about, but – like “Homeland Security” – it’s another bit of imbecile-fascist flair that future Democratic governments will end up wearing because they’re too busy with real issues to spend political capital on the symbolic bullshit (whereas the reverse is true of Republican administrations).
The thing is, if no one cleans up all these administrative dog turds, you’ll end up with a progressive president trying to broker Middle East peace deals by dispatching the Secretary of White Power on Air Force 88.
Bonus to using this approach: excuse to wear jodhpurs.
ETA: or they could stick with the gendered terminology of the air force/navy and call them “rocketmen,” which REALLY opens things up as far as fabulous costuming opportunities go.
I believe “Sentinel” was one of the proposals. Not only does “Guardian” sound like part of the Marvel franchise, it invites confusion with the US Coast Guard and the National Guard. Especially since there may or may not end up being a Space National Guard to go along with the Air National Guard and the Army National Guard.
Guardians… under the leadership of Commander Keen? Captain Kirk?
C’mon Pence, you’re on a roll. Don’t stop now.
Fickt nicht mit dem Raketemensch!
The bulk of what the USSF does isn’t any meaningful expansion of what USAF Spacecom was doing before. I’d be curious to see what the marginal costs of doing it are (they’re certainly some, but I don’t think they’re very big).
Embracing the stupid offers a chance for even more absurdity…
Grunt = Groot
Zoomie = Rocket
Full Bird Colonel = Star Lord
etc.
Well, at least he didn’t use Space Marine™. I imagine Games Workshop might actually try and sue the government for use of that. /rimshot
