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”.
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.
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).