The nature of creating a military branch that is tasked with defending the United States from threats in space comes with a number of challenges, which includes finding the name that reflects its mission while avoiding any inherent absurdity, with a new report detailing that the organization was a sent a number of suggestions for identifying its members that were lifted straight from pop culture, which included Skywalkers, Wookiees, and Trekkies. The United State Space Force (USSF) ultimately landed on the term “guardians,” which drew instant comparisons to Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy team, with this report, as compiled by Stars and Stripes, noting that “Guardians of the Galaxy” was another suggestion for what to call members of the USSF, as was “Star-Lord.”
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The outlet listed a number of the nearly 400 suggestions that were sent to officials, which also included AstroPraetorians, freedom-naughts, raiders, pathfinders, space Marines, and STARgeant. Stars and Stripes also pointed out that some of the more absurd suggestions included anti-gravity gang, astrogators, loonies, FloatyBois, Homo Spaciens, and Space Avengers.
According to its official website, “The U.S. Space Force is a military service that organizes, trains, and equips space forces in order to protect U.S. and allied interests in space and to provide space capabilities to the joint force. USSF responsibilities will include developing Guardians, acquiring military space systems, maturing the military doctrine for space power, and organizing space forces to present to our Combatant Commands.”
While some movie fans were surprised by the overlap between fictional worlds and real-life military initiatives when Space Force’s “Guardians” were announced, this is far from the first time we’ve seen the government borrow popular terms to describe programs.
Back in 1983, President Ronald Reagan announced the launch of the Strategic Defense Initiative, which was designed to develop plans to prevent nuclear threats from reaching U.S. soil by destroying them as they passed through space. As the SDI progressed, it earned the nickname of the “Star Wars program,” which was initially meant as an insult, only for officials to embrace the name colloquially.
The USSF was announced back in 2019 and was largely criticized, with The Office creators even developing the Space Force Netflix series, but just weeks ago, the official USSF flag was flown at the inauguration of President Joe Biden, confirming that the organization isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Are you surprised that the USSF earned these suggestions? Which would you pick? Let us know in the comments below!
