Letter to the Editor at AFM

I woke up and started to read the Jan/Feb edition of AF Magazine.  Didn't get beyond the "Editoral" page where the Editor in Chief wrote about the new Space Force.  I immediately wrote the magazine...

First, here is the essay in AFM by the Editor-in-Chief, Tobias Naegele, that I freaked out about...

https://www.airforcemag.com/article/editorial-launching-the-space-force/

Here is my letter...as I doubt they will publish it...

Editors,

I guess it's hard for the editorial staff at Air Force Magazine to push back on the Editor in Chief when he want's to write an editorial...

What a disservice to the Air Force and now the new Space Force on what should be a profoundly important event...and a nice cover "Space Force Rising".    Tobias Naegele had to write something, I guess, or as the adage goes, "open your mouth and remove all doubt".  Naegele has removed all doubt.  His editorial in the Jan/Feb edition, "Launching the Space Force", fails to do so.

He is worried about tribaism...

He is worried about intoxicating power...

He is worried about what we will call them...

He is worried about the uniform...

He want's the NRO budget...

What a full and deep misunderstanding of the mission and purpose of a space force, it's relationship to the USAF, and the real meaning behind this historic occasion.  He also doesn't understand the cultures of which he is trying to speak. As editor in chief of the premier service periodical, Mr. Naegele should be talking about the mission...or at least demonstrate he knows something about the mission... before he tries to talk culture.

The Air Force get's continuously beat up for stealing dollars from space programs to build fighters and bombers, yet we are still the dominant space force in the world.  Without the Air Force the United States  wouldn't be the preeminent superpower in space....And oh by the way we still happen to have the greatest air force in the world.  The USAF should be proud of space and take credit for space.  Now more than ever.  The USAF's only failing is to not take sufficient credit for what airmen have done.  Incidentally the same if true for BMC2, ISR, Strategic Nuclear Forces, and our burgeoning unmanned fleet of aircraft...all unrivaled.  Cyber, not so much.  Although at one point they tried.  The USAF doesn't get the credit they deserve for any of these world altering capabilities and in particular space.

The NRO is a boutique compared  with the USAF's space forces. And if you don't think the USAF is eyeball deep in the NRO, you don't know that's going on in the NRO.

I would have rather Naegele called out this historic occasion.  Give airmen the credit for all of their successes in and thru space thus giving our great country complete mastery of the ultimate high ground as we step off into this final frontier with new found independence. Instead we are treated to issues so superfluous and demeaning to the professionals in the Air Force as to make me question my membership in the AFA.

Mr. Naegele, going forward, please focus on the mission and the real challenges we face.  Not the superfluous. The threat is external.  That is where you've failed the publication and our Country.  To win we must build the space force doctrine, push the technology, know our adversaries, continue to organize, train,and equip and present space forces to the combatant commanders. The rest will sort itself out...as it has for decades, one soldier, sailor, airman, marine, and now spaceman, at a time...