Vice President Pence Swears in First Space Operations Chief


Vice President Mike Pence swears in Air Force Gen. John Raymond as the first chief of space operations for the U.S. Space Force, January 14 2020.

Subscribe to Dr. Justin Imel, Sr. by Email

Transcript

Please take your seats. Good morning, I’m Colonel Curtis Hernandez, Director of National Security Space Policy, National Space Council. Welcome to the swearing-in ceremony for the first Chief of Space Operations, United States Space Force. Today’s ceremony carries special significance, marking the first accession of a commissioned officer into the Space Force. Further, the oath being administered today is a requirement under Article VI of the United States Constitution, and is further prescribed under Title V, United States Code, Section 3331. The oath signifies that the officeholder will support and defend the Constitution of the United States, that the officeholder will bear allegiance to the Constitution, and that the individual will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of their appointment. Today marks the first time in our history an American will take the oath as a member of the United States Space Force, and will lead our nation’s newest branch of the armed forces. Please rise for the singing of our national anthem, performed by Technical Sergeant Kathleen Baughman of the Singing Sergeants United States Air Force Band.

♪ Oh say can you see ♪ ♪ By the dawn’s early light ♪ ♪ What so proudly we hailed ♪ ♪ At the twilight’s last gleaming ♪ ♪ Whose broad stripes and bright stars ♪ ♪ Through the perilous fight ♪ ♪ O’er the ramparts we watched ♪ ♪ Were so gallantly streaming ♪ ♪ And the rocket’s red glare ♪ ♪ The bombs bursting in air ♪ ♪ Gave proof through the night ♪ ♪ That our flag was still there ♪ ♪ Oh say, does that star-spangled ♪ ♪ Banner yet wave ♪ ♪ O’er the land of the free ♪ ♪ And the home of the brave ♪

Thank you, Technical Sergeant Baughman. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Major General Stephen A. Schaick, Chief of Chaplains, United States Air Force, for the invocation.

Good morning, I invite you to join me as I pray. Loving God whose glory is displayed in the heavens, cover us this day with your mercy and favor as we seek to keep our nation and your heavens a safe and peaceful domain. We humbly ask your wisdom to rest upon and within our president, our nation’s leaders, and upon our nation’s first Chief of Space Operations, General J. Raymond. Guard and guide him as he organizes, train, and equips space-minded professionals to deter, defend, deliver, and develop space forces that will secure the blessings of liberty for Americans today and tomorrow. And our prayer for General Raymond is simple. Go before him, that he may follow in your steps. Go behind him to steer him when he strays, and go beside him as his strength and joy for the journey. This is our prayer. Amen.

Thank you, chaplain. And now, the Vice President of the United States.

You may be seated, thanks. Well, thank you all for being here. This is a distinguished gathering and a historic moment. And on behalf of the President of the United States and first family, welcome to the White House. Today is a historic day for our nation, because today we will swear in the leader of the first new branch of the United States Armed Forces in more than 70 years, the Chief of Space Operations, General J. Raymond.

Befitting the historic nature of this occasion, we are joined by some of the most distinguished leaders in the American military and in the Congress of the United States. I wanna thank the Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, for being with us today, and thank you for your strong support of bringing about President Trump’s vision for the United States Space Force. Thank you, Secretary Esper.

And the still-new Secretary of the Air Force, but someone who has thrown herself headlong into this partnership and the launch of the United States Space Force, join me in thanking the Secretary of the Air Force, Barbara Barrett.

We are also honored to be joined by so many distinguished Americans, including distinguished members of Congress who are with us here today, and we are truly grateful for both of their yeoman work in seeing to it that the National Defense Authorization Act included the launch of the United States Space Force. Join me in thanking Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota and Congressman Mike Rogers of Alabama. Thank you both, thanks for your leadership.

In June of 2018, President Trump laid out a vision. Reclaim America’s heritage as the world’s greatest spacefaring nation, and in those remarks he called for the creation of the Space Force as the sixth branch of our Armed Forces. And today, General J. Raymond will take his position as the first officer of the United States Space Force. As the first officer of the United States Space Force, and the Chief of Operations, he will also take his seat on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and I’m very pleased to be joined today with several members of the Joint Chiefs. Join me in thanking the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General John Hyten, and General David Goldfein, who are with us here today, thank you all.

I am told that the idea of a Space Force was first spoken about during the years of the Eisenhower administration. And all of the leadership gathered here, the political leadership, the military leadership that’s gathered here has made President Trump’s vision for a Space Force a reality. And I know I extend the gratitude of the president to each and every one of you for helping to bring us to this historic day, and to bring us to this important moment. It was on December 20th, 2019 the president signed the National Defense Authorization Act, and signed the Space Force into law. And the first decision the president made after establishing the Space Force was deciding who should be its first leader. And I was around when the president made that decision, and I can tell you, he never hesitated. He knew right away there was no one more qualified or more prepared from a lifetime of service than General J. Raymond, sir, as the first leader of the Space Force.

More on him in a moment, but I just learned the depth of tradition of military service of this extraordinary family. It is remarkable to think that since 1865, the Raymond family has worn the uniform of the United States. His great-great grandfather graduated first in his class from West Point. Other West Point graduates would include his great-grandfather, his grandfather, and his father. I am told that in his version of teenage rebellion, he headed to the Air Force.

What an incredible tribute, what an incredible family. And speaking of his family, would you join me in thanking his extraordinary wife Molly for the lifetime of service.

His brother Greg and sister-in-law Beth are here, his sister Jan and her husband Bill, we thank you. We thank your whole family for your dedication and love for this country, but most importantly, we have a military mom and a military spouse who has lived that tradition, and I think is maybe the proudest mother in America today. Would you join me in thanking General Raymond’s mom, Barbara, for her extraordinary contributions.

I think today’s remarkable turnout for this occasion just shows the importance of this position to our national security. And I think it is also a testament to the respect that General J. Raymond commands among his peers all across the military and the United States. General Raymond was the perfect choice for the president to lead the Space Force because of his integrity, his decades of experience, particularly in understanding and leading the defense of this nation, and the maintenance of our assets in space. General Raymond, as I mentioned, comes from a proud history of military service, but himself, he has served his country as an Air Force officer for more than 35 years. At that time he has extensive experience overseeing all of our military operations in space. For the last three years, he led nearly 30,000 men and women at Air Force Space Command, which is based in Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado. He commanded the 5th Space Surveillance Squadron, the 21st Space Wing, Joint Force Space Component Command, and the 30th Operations Group at Vandenberg Air Force Base that I had the privilege of visiting just last summer. For his exemplary service, he has earned a chest full of medals, from Distinguished Service with an oak leaf cluster to the Defense Superior Service medal, and the list only goes on. In each of his roles over the last 35 years, General Raymond has excelled, he has led with distinction. And I can tell you that, having met with him already about his plans to move out with the launch of the United States Space Force, I know the next year is going to be a busy year, and we are going to see literally thousands of Air Force personnel added to the roles of the Space Force, and the United States Space Force will have an extraordinary launch under General J. Raymond.

Well, General, we thank you for your long service to the country. It’s my privilege now to administer to you the oath of office, and to express to everyone here the confidence the President of the United States and I and our entire administration have, and I know that all of your peers have. It is President Trump’s belief that the United States must remain as dominant in space as we are on land and sea and the air. And your charge is to see to that mission with the United States Space Force. Defend this nation and defend our ideals, and we know that you will answer that call with the integrity, and with the conviction, and with the professionalism that has characterized your entire career. So with that, it would be my great honor to administer the oath of office to the new Chief of Space Operations for the United States Space Force, General J. Raymond. I want you to raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, John William Raymond, do solemnly swear.

I, John William Raymond, do solemnly swear.

That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States.

That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Against all enemies foreign and domestic.

Against all enemies foreign and domestic.

That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.

That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.

That I take this obligation freely.

That I take this obligation freely.

Without any mental reservation.

Without any mental reservation.

Or purpose of evasion.

Or purpose of evasion.

And that I will well and faithfully discharge.

And that I will well and faithfully discharge.

The duties of the office upon which I am about to enter.

The duties of the office upon which I am about to enter.

So help me God.

So help me God.

Congratulations.

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s my privilege to introduce to you the first officer of the United States Space Force, and the Chief of Space Operations, General J. Raymond.

Vice President Pence and distinguished guests. Welcome, and thank you so much. Vice President Pence, thank you for officiating today’s ceremony. It’s a big honor for me, it’s a big honor for my family. More importantly, it’s a big honor for the 26,000 airmen that come to work every day focused on ensuring our access to and our freedom to maneuver in space. My sincere thanks to President Trump, to Secretary Esper and Secretary Barrett, for the privilege of serving as the first Chief of Space Operations, I am indeed humble. Secretary Barrett, ma’am, I look forward to serving closely with you. The president and Congress have given us a great opportunity to build the force we need to respond to the challenges that we face in the space domain, and with your leadership, I am confident we’ll do just that. My special thanks to Senator Cramer, Representatives Rogers, and Representative Cooper for their thoughtful leadership in crafting the Space Force legislation. Thank you both. Finally, I wanna thank my family for being here, and for their continued support. So, Mr. Vice President, you said I have integrity. So I told Molly that this was gonna be our last move.

And so, integrity is a core value in the Air Force and in the United States Space Force. However, I lied.

Thanks for packin’ up one more time. I promise, I promise, this is the last. I have administered or taken the oath countless times all over the world. I’ve done it on top of large space surveillance antennas in England. I’ve administered the oath on the desert sands in the Sankame Awar. I administered the oath in Japan after the great earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear reactor disaster, and every oath is special, no matter where it is administered. But today, this oath is historic, and I’ll tell ya, it’s hard to match. This beautiful ceremonial office, Mr. Vice President, my understanding is 16 Secretaries of the Navy have occupied this office. General John Pershing utilized the office as the Army Chief of Staff and as the Chairman of the Battle Monuments Commission. And since 1960, every Vice President but one has occupied this office. When you walk into the door, the history seeps out of the walls. It is palpable, and today we add one more historical event to the long and impressive history. On 20 December, with the signing of the National Defense Authorization Act, the president established the United States Space Force as the sixth branch of the armed services. Not only is this historical, but it’s critical, and this establishment is absolutely critical to our national security and that of our allies, and it’s not lost on me, or it’s not lost on the airmen that I am privileged to serve with. Mr. Vice President, we have our marching orders, and we are moving out. We do not want a conflict to begin or extend into space, we want to deter that conflict from happening. The best way I know how to do that is to do so from a position of strength. The NDAA provides us the opportunity to start with a clean sheet of paper, to build this service in close partnership with the Air Force. And I wanna thank my former boss, now my peer, and that’s gonna be hard for me to get used to sayin’, General Dave Goldfein. Thank you for your partnership, for your leadership, and for your friendship. We will build, we will build this new service in a way that strengthens our joint force and allows us to move with the speed and agility needed to respond to the current strategic environment. Once built, the Space Force’s measures of success will be that our adversaries are deterred, and that our joint and coalition partners always have the space capabilities that our modern way of war and our modern way of life depend on. I can’t thank you enough for the privilege of being here today, thank you for the honor of administering the oath, and thanks everybody for attending. Have a great day, and it’s now time to get to work. Thank you.

Share with Friends:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.