If you’re transferring to Space Force, or if you’re already in it, top branch officials want your ideas on what to call its members, ranks and operational units.
According to a statement from Space Force spokesperson Maj. William Russell, Air Force CAC card holders with access to Air Force Portal can submit their ideas online through the IdeaScale Website.
Space Force officials will also reach out to the Army, Navy and Marine Corps space communities for their input too, the statement said.
The deadline for submitting ideas is Feb. 24, after which a panel of Space Force officials will review feedback and announce a final decision “at a future date to be determined,” the statement said.
When submitting proposals, service members should use terms that are “gender-neutral, distinctive and should emphasize a future-oriented military force,” according to the statement.
The submissions also cannot violate copyrights, trademarks or any other kind of intellectual property rights, so that unfortunately means “Starship Troopers” and “Ultramarines” are probably out of the running.
Worst of all, submissions “must also be in good taste,” the statement says.
“As we continue to forge the Space Force into a lean, agile and forward-looking 21st Century warfighting branch, we want to provide space professionals the opportunity to influence what the members of our new service will be called,” said Lt. Gen. DT Thompson, U.S. Space Force vice commander, in the statement.
“The decisions we make today will shape the Space Force for decades to come, so we want to ensure those who will serve in the Space Force have a say when it comes to important organizational and cultural identity considerations.”
The Thursday statement comes a week after Chief Master Sgt. Amber Mitchell, a senior enlisted advisor assigned to Space Force, reached out to airmen for ideas on Space Force names, ranks, uniforms, song and other subjects through the popular Facebook group Air Force amn/nco/snco.
Hundreds of Facebook users shared their ideas, though many of them would probably constitute a copyright infringement of some kind.