WEBVTT

00:00.140 --> 00:02.307
thank you so much for the privilege of

00:02.307 --> 00:04.470
presiding over the ceremony on the

00:04.470 --> 00:07.000
first day . Officers in the Air Force

00:07.000 --> 00:09.167
and Space Force common specialty codes

00:09.330 --> 00:12.130
can become space force . Guardians is a

00:12.130 --> 00:14.130
momentous day for these members and

00:14.130 --> 00:16.074
their families and friends , their

00:16.074 --> 00:18.210
coworkers and for our country . The

00:18.220 --> 00:19.998
ceremony today was put together

00:19.998 --> 00:21.720
voluntarily by a couple of the

00:21.720 --> 00:23.942
guardians here . We wanted to make sure

00:23.942 --> 00:25.998
that everybody was included . We had

00:25.998 --> 00:28.164
about 48 folks from hand scum so local

00:28.164 --> 00:30.109
ceremony that wanted to be able to

00:30.109 --> 00:32.164
participate . We actually included a

00:32.164 --> 00:34.164
couple deployed folks , the virtual

00:34.164 --> 00:36.109
ceremonies as well . So I acted as

00:36.109 --> 00:35.440
today's narrator for a lot of these

00:35.440 --> 00:37.329
ceremonies , which I just feel so

00:37.329 --> 00:39.662
honored to be part of . It was a really ,

00:39.662 --> 00:41.884
really a tremendous occasion to be able

00:41.884 --> 00:43.884
to be part of this historic event .

00:43.884 --> 00:46.107
After his ceremony , Captain Kevin Best

00:46.107 --> 00:48.329
offered his thoughts as to why he chose

00:48.329 --> 00:50.384
to join the Space Force and become a

00:50.384 --> 00:49.950
guardian . So I went back and forth a

00:49.950 --> 00:52.172
couple times on if I was gonna make the

00:52.172 --> 00:54.394
switch to stay with Air Force , already

00:54.394 --> 00:56.672
have eight years in with the Air Force .

00:56.672 --> 00:58.783
Um , really what ? It came down . She

00:58.783 --> 01:00.950
was a couple things . One . It's a new

01:00.950 --> 01:03.228
service . So I said , This is historic .

01:03.228 --> 01:05.561
Um , not a lot of people get to do that .

01:05.561 --> 01:04.360
Kind of feel like one of the

01:04.360 --> 01:06.450
Trailblazers back from when the Air

01:06.450 --> 01:10.260
Force is starting up on , then to the

01:10.270 --> 01:12.326
space force . Really put emphasis on

01:12.840 --> 01:14.729
They were gonna be flattening the

01:14.729 --> 01:16.673
hierarchy and going faster . And I

01:16.673 --> 01:18.784
thought that would give me a chance ,

01:18.784 --> 01:21.007
toe really make an impact in a way that

01:21.007 --> 01:23.118
in a different type of way , from the

01:23.118 --> 01:25.451
air Force that I've been able to so far ,

01:25.451 --> 01:25.350
This is Mark Herlihy reporting from

01:25.350 --> 01:26.460
Hanscom Air Force Base .