A group of 15 Guardians became the first all-Space Force flight to graduate from the Department of the Air Force’s Officer Training School on March 10—another milestone as the new service carves out space-specific education.
The newly-graduated Guardians were commissioned as second lieutenants after the standard eight-week training course of OTS—one of three sources the DAF has for commissioning officers, alongside ROTC and the U.S. Air Force Academy.
This is not the first time Guardians have graduated from OTS, officials noted, but it is the first time there were enough of them to group them all together.
“When I was assigned the Space Force flight, I wasn’t sure what to expect,” Maj. Kaleigh Sides, flight commander, said in a statement. “But I couldn’t be prouder of how they came together. Instead of 15 individuals, they were one team.”
That team excelled in training, winning OTS’s Commandant’s Cup, given to the best flight which demonstrates courage, resiliency, and hardiness of spirit in a series of demanding physical and mental team challenges,” according to the Space Force.
More all-Space Force flights in OTS may be coming in the future, said Col. Keolani Bailey, OTS commandant.
“In the future, we’ll continue to group them as much as possible to align their training with foundational Space Force imperatives as we build warrior-minded leaders of character for our total force team,” Bailey said.
This first flight graduated nearly eight months after the Space Force graduated its first ever class of Guardians from USSF-specific basic military training. That process similarly started with future Guardians mixing with potential Airmen, then upgraded over time to larger and larger groups.
Due to the service’s small size, Space Force officials have shown little to no interest in establishing a separate Space Force ROTC program or a U.S. Space Force Academy.
However, the Space Force has established its own path with professional military education, partnering with Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies for intermediate- and senior-level developmental education—forgoing the usual war college in favor of what it calls “independent PME.”