Celebrating Women's History Month
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
SPACE VOL. 63 NO. 14 THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2019 OBSERVERPETERSON AIR FORCE BASE Celebrating Women’s History Month (U.S. Air Force photo by Robb Lingley) PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. — Col. Todd Moore, 21st Space Wing commander, passes the guidon to Col. Kirsten Aguilar as she assumes command of the 21st Mission Support Group at Patriot Park on Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, June 26, 2018. With March being Women’s History Month, Aguilar encourages young female Airmen to be strong, courageous, and confident in everything they do by being the best Airmen they can be. By Robb Lingley | 21ST SPACE WING PUBLIC AFFAIRS PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. — March marks “Command is the greatest opportunity you can have, be- “My mother taught me to be strong, independent and the 32nd year of celebrating Women’s History Month for cause with command you are entrusted with caring for others, courageous and that nothing would be too difficult as long the 21st Space Wing here. Women and their contributions ensuring the mission gets done and having the opportunity as I believed in myself,” said Aguilar. “Those words gave me to national defense are celebrated regardless of nationality, to recognize the hard work of your people,” said Aguilar. the confidence to tackle challenges as they came up.” creed or background. Aguilar said her biggest learning moment as an officer Aguilar has sound advice for young female Airmen in For Col. Kirsten Aguilar, 21st Mission Support Group was when she was a young captain. She had the mentality the Air Force today. commander, Women’s History Month provides the oppor- of “keep up or get out of my way.” “Be strong, courageous and confident in everything you tunity to reflect on her career as an Air Force officer. While that certainly was an aggressive approach, she re- do by being the best Airman you can be,” said Aguilar. Aguilar comes from a military family, which inspired her to alizes now that not everyone worked at her pace and that “While it’s not easy, you can be an Airman, a wife, and a join the Air Force to do her part for her family and country. sometimes slow and steady was the right answer, because mom all at the same time. “I did want to fly fighters after watching the movie ‘Top fast and furious didn’t always work. Women’s History Month started as a national celebration in Gun,’” said Aguilar. “Unfortunately, I had poor vision and “Recognizing the strengths in others and leveraging those 1982, when Congress authorized the president to proclaim the pilot training was not an option. I would have joined the strengths, rather than trying to overrun them, was by far week beginning on March 7, 1982, as Women’s History Week. Navy but my father, a former sailor, convinced me the Air my biggest learning moment,” she said. In 1987, Congress designated the month of March as Force was the better option for me so I decided to follow in In her career Aguilar said she has been blessed to work Women’s History Month. Since 1995, Presidents Bill Clinton, my grandfather’s footsteps and join the Air Force.” with several strong female officers, enlisted and civilian George W. Bush and Barack Obama have issued a series of Aguilar said her biggest Air Force accomplishment is leaders throughout her military career, but the woman who annual proclamations designating the month of March as being able to command. has influenced her the most was without a doubt her mother. Women’s History Month. INSIDE NEWS 1-18 | BRIEFS 4 | CLASSIFIED 20 | CROSSWORD 20 AFSPC HOSTS SPACE FUTURES FEMALE-SPECIFIC FLIGHT AF WEEK IN PHOTOS SAFETY TRAINING: WHAT AF WORKSHOP EQUIPMENT RIDERS NEED TO KNOW PAGE 3 PAGE 9 PAGE 12 PAGE 16 21ST SPACE WING COMMANDER’S CORNER Fight’s on! By Lt. Col. Charles Sandusky | 7TH SPACE WARNING SQUADRON “Fight’s on!” This is the rallying cry for the space enterprise. accident; our operators build combat readiness with adver- The future for the 21st SW is exciting as we bring even more Whether it is at the strategic level with the drive to develop sary-focused, threat-based advanced training. This approach capability to the fight. At 7th Space Warning Squadron, we a separate Space Force or at the unit level with a focus on gives us an edge over our adversaries, and creates operators are partnering with the Missile Defense Agency to add two threat-based, intelligence-driven mission planning, we have who are disciplined, creative and aggressive. new radars to our command and control responsibility in the not seen the same national imperative to maintain superi- We put this to the test when our team joined the fight near future. The first is the Long Range Discriminating Radar. ority in the space domain since President Kennedy’s “moon with the National Space Defense Center in the first glob- This radar will provide more refined midcourse guidance for speech” in 1961. At that time, we had a whole-of-government al exercise that missile defense interceptors. It approach that was committed to making space a policy and sy nchroni zed will also help clarify our pic- budgetary priority to defend the nation from a real threat. I efforts across the ture of the space domain with argue that we have the same confluence now – a real threat 21st SW’s radar refined space track capabilities. in the space domain and a political and budgetary focus on network to feed Combat readiness relies on Next, the Homeland Defense the importance of space superiority. on-orbit adver- a bedrock of predictive and Radar will provide addition- The 21st Space Wing is at the front edge of this fight, sary detection al missile defense capability and our operators are working hard to maintain and build and character- actionable information to defend along with added space track necessary combat readiness to meet and defeat threats in ization data to functionality. all orbital regimes. Combat readiness relies on a bedrock of the NSDC. This and protect against any threat we While capability growth is predictive and actionable information to defend and protect effort reinforced critical and modernization is against any threat we face across the space domain. The goal the notion that face across the space domain. needed, the real keys to success is to ensure our nation’s leaders and allies have a clear space unity of effort is are the enlisted and commis- domain picture. The ability to develop and maintain a clear needed to protect sioned operators who are the space domain picture allows us to fight through the fog and and defend our nation’s space assets. Following this exercise, humans in the loop. Our Airmen enable operations, spur friction inherent in the space environment. senior leaders further understood the space domain picture, innovation and assure space superiority to defend the home- However, a clear space domain picture does not happen by proving we are poised to take and maintain space superiority. land and our allies. Fight’s on! A HERO FOR ALL AGES! CHARIS BIBLE COLLEGE Woodland Park APRILAPRIL 12-1312-13 TheKingOfJerusalem.com The Transcript can publish your NOTICES OF GUARDIANSHIP For more info call 634-5905 2 | SPACE OBSERVER THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2019 | WWW.CSMNG.COM AFSPC hosts Space Futures Workshop By 1st Lt. Noah Emerson | AIR FORCE SPACE COMMAND PUBLIC AFFAIRS U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. – The Air Force Space Command Space Futures Workshop was held at the U.S. Air Force Academy, March 19-21, 2019, giving experts the chance to collaborate and predict what space will look like in the next 20-40 years. Opening remarks were provided by Maj. Gen. John Shaw, AFSPC Deputy Commander, and Dr. Richard Joseph, U.S. Air Force Chief Scientist. Shaw pointed out how space becoming a contested warfighting domain has driven dramatic changes in U.S. government and is the impetus for collaborations such as the workshop. “That’s how the most rapid change happens in human society…it’s the presence of a threat,” Shaw said. “The question is: how do you stay ahead of the threat and react quickly to threats before they get close to you. That’s a big challenge we’re facing.” Joseph summarized the importance of the workshop and of looking forward towards the future. “We have to anticipate where things are going, where the adversary is going, where the adversary can go, and then be there before they get there,” said Joseph. Joseph emphasized the need for creative, new ideas that will further advance U.S. capa- bilities and its unfettered access to space. Over the course of three days, workshop participants worked to define possible strategic future space scenarios encompassing Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, and Political (STEEP) factors. Dr. Joel Mozer, Chief Scientist of AFSPC and organizer of the Space Futures Workshop, said the workshop is a message to U.S. agencies and their allies that they must come together in a collaborative effort for space future planning. “We need to inform our short-term decisions with a long view in mind,” Mozer said. Futures Report to be developed by workshop attendees and published in the coming months. “We need to come together, working across agencies and with industry partners to form a “The report will serve as a roadmap for the U.S. and its allies,” said Mozer. “Forty years unified front to develop a long-term plan that anticipates future scenarios.” from now, I anticipate many of our predictions of the future of space to have come true.