Of course the United States Space Force (much less it having an actual “Academy”) will never happen. Honestly I don’t care. The fact that on June 18th, 2018, President Trump dared declare such a thing it at all is what makes it so amazing and so logical (as Spock would say).
I came-of-age seeing “2001: A Space Odyssey” on a Cinerama screen in 1968 in West Hartford, Connecticut, so Trump certainly saw that same mind-blowing, feels like you are riding in an earth-to-moon shuttle flick, too, just that he was somewhere near his New York City home. And while I sat mesmerized in front of a modest black & white TV for the original Star Trek episodes as they aired, forced to practice Patience, week by week, Trump likely watched them all, too, only in brilliant color on a luxury-model TV. (I’ve gotta Thank God the only network my family’s aerial could pick up just “happened” to be NBC.)
Like me, as the 70’s became the 80’s, then the 90’s, Trump probably assumed the U.S. would get back to sending men to the moon until we had some sort of “colony” there, before at least making a vow to go beyond our moon. It was enormously disappointing when we didn’t, so I think this “Space Force” fiction is Trump’s attempt to inject life into and turn the 20th century’s version of The American Space-Conquering Dream into a 21st century Space-Warrior dream.
We badly need a Dream.
