Space Force Nomenclature
by “Star Wars” Program Chief Space Laser Engineer,
William F. Otto
With the creation of a new service branch comes a momentous responsibility: that of choosing nomenclature that will shape its culture and perception for decades to come. Notable examples include the names given to service personnel and organizational units, and its motto.
Personnel
The word “soldier” comes from the Old French word soudier meaning “one who serves” or “one who receives pay.” That word derived from the Latin word solidarius, meaning “one who serves in the military for pay” or “paid companion.” The Latin word in turn came from solidus, a type of Roman coin. Thus, the English language gives us “soldier” to mean anyone who serves in the military in any capacity. Alas, that isn’t very specific, so we’ve added a number of other words to denote people serving in various branches and roles—sailor, marine, and more recently, “airman” notable among them.
A sailor is simply “one who sails,” and so was the natural name in the Navy (from the Latin navis, meaning “ship” or “vessel” ) during the age of sail when that word had come to refer to a national shipborne fighting force, and later (by extension) to anyone serving in the Navy, even if they never come near a ship. Likewise, “marine” comes from the Latin marinus, meaning “of or belonging to the sea,” so that to was a natural choice for a service branch dedicated to marine operations but not to fleets of warships. When the Air Force came along in 1947, the Latin equivalent aerius had already been anglicized into “aerial,” but in the U.S. we use the spelling “air,” so Air Force personnel became “airmen,” people of or concerned with the air.
So far, so good, and it was reasonable that when the Space Force came along as a service branch derived from the Air Force, under the same federal department, and initially constituted by former Air Force personnel, some wondered if its ranks would be filled with “space-men.” No, they won’t, and there are several good reasons. First, it strikes many as outmoded and a bit sexist; second, it and its scholastic cousin “space cadet” have unfortunate connotations inherited (perhaps unfairly) from pulp-era science fiction. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it sounds more like what you would call someone serving in a space navy—and that’s not what the Space Force is. The Space Force is more like the Marines, or more to the point, like the Coast Guard, in that its primary role is not to conduct battles from large fleets of ships but to guard, track, and enforce, mostly from the ground. “Space-man” just doesn’t seem to describe that.
An argument might have been made for calling Space Force personnel “spatiors” after the Latin word for space, spatium. There are problems with that as well though, not least of which is that the Romans didn’t mean quite what we do by “space” and—far more importantly—in English, “spatior” doesn’t exactly roll smoothly off the tongue! It sounds a bit like an invective hurled during a shouting match. Ah those Latin roots, perhaps all the good ones are taken?
Thus, on December 18, 2020, word came out that personnel serving under the U.S. Space Force would be called “guardians.” Officially, the name both reflects the role of the force (akin to the Coast Guard, but for space) and directly honors decades of defensive space operations in the various U.S. Armed Forces. Of course, like any government policy announcement, this brought its share of opprobrium, with some poking fun with comparisons to Marvel Comics’ “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
But in fact, the term is far from new. Coast Guard personnel have been called “Guardians of the Coast” since the late nineteenth century due to their role in controlling piracy and smuggling. The term stuck, and has been used informally (alongside “coasties”) to refer to Coast Guard personnel ever since, with modern units retaining slogans such as “Guardians of the Gulf” and “Guardians of the Great Lakes.”
So influential was the so-called “guardian ethos,” that in the early 2000s, moves were made to recognize it as the official name for Coast Guard personnel. This might have become policy had it not been blocked by Coast Guard Admiral Robert J. Papp Jr., who stated that since “Coast Guard” was the name given the branch on its creation in U.S.C. Title 14 (enacted in 1915), members were “Coast Guardsmen” and no commandant had the authority to change that.[9] For the record, and with all due respect, he seems to have been wrong about that—the law has, at least as revealed in a fairly thorough online search, nothing to say about the name or about so conscribing the authority of the commandant. Nevertheless, his policy stands.
So much the better for the Space Force. In 2020, the Space Force adopted “guardians” as its official term for Space Force members. The decision was made after a year-long process that involved input from Space Force members and leaders, as well as a public outreach campaign. The term was chosen because it reflects the Space Force’s mission of protecting and defending the space domain.
It probably helped that since 1983, the motto of Air Force Space Command had been the apt and very popular “Guardians of the High Frontier.”
Echelon Names
Modern military organizations are large and require efficient hierarchical means of management and control. To this end, each military organization defines its own terminology to name the various layers and components of its organization. The resulting vocabularies are far too complex and diverse to cover in any depth here, but for example, the term “battalion” is derived from the Italian word battaglione, which means “a large battle formation.” Similarly, the term “brigade” comes from the French word brigade, which originally referred to a group of soldiers tasked with a particular duty.
In today’s U.S. military, the Army has its brigades, the Navy its squadrons, the Marines battalions and regiments, the Air Force, flights and wings. At the highest level of organization are the numbered armies, fleets, and air forces, each having regional and functional responsibilities. The Space Force has no equivalent, being much smaller, so the next command echelon below field commands is the delta,[10] a single level of command which combines the wing and group command echelons found in the Air Force. Each delta is organized around a specific function, such as operations, installation support, or training.
Motto
The Space Force motto serves as a symbolic representation of the values and mission of the organization. The motto is a concise and memorable phrase that captures the essence of the Space Force’s focus on space operations, technological innovation, and national security. In this way, it serves as a form of nomenclature that conveys important information about the Space Force to those both inside and outside the organization.
The Space Force officially adopted “Semper Supra” as its motto in July 2020, shortly after its establishment as a separate branch of the U.S. military.
According to the Space Force’s first chief of space operations, General John Raymond, the motto was selected after a rigorous selection process that involved input from Space Force members and leaders. The process included a call for suggestions from the entire Space Force community, followed by a review of proposed mottos by a panel of senior leadership. This panel then narrowed the choices to a few which were reviewed by General Raymond and his senior staff.
“Semper Supra,” is Latin for “Always Above.” According to official sources, it represents “our role in establishing, maintaining, and preserving U.S. freedom of operations in the space domain.” Of course, that includes the operation of intelligence gathering assets, and support for soldiers on the ground, so the motto could be construed as either reassuring or menacing depending on which end of the force one is facing.
First published in the 1953 collection, Expedition to Earth, Clarke’s “Superiority” is a classic science fictional cautionary tale, warning of what cognitive scientists term “illusory superiority,” a cognitive bias wherein one overestimates their own qualities or abilities in relation to others. It afflicts nations no less than individuals and, in this age of propaganda and Dunning-Kruger-driven social media, is as relevant as it ever was. Even more so in space, where relative orbital velocity can turn a gumdrop into an energy-dense superweapon.
9) Leavitt, Michael P. “Coast Guardsman, Not Guardian.” Flotilla 23-1, Annapolis, MD: U.S. Naval Academy.
10) Erwin, Sandra. “Space Force to Stand Up Three Major Commands, Lower Echelons to be Called ‘Deltas’.” SpaceNews, June 30, 2020.