Space Force chooses ranks similar to Air Force’s

The Space Force has settled on a rank structure that largely mirrors the Air Force’s, despite some high profile advocates for Navy ranks, including “Star Trek” actor William Shatner.

The rank structure was detailed in a memo approved Friday that quickly began circulating on social media. A Space Force spokesperson confirmed the authenticity of the memo to The Hill.

For enlisted “guardians,” as service members in the Space Force are called, the first five ranks are different from the Air Force, but the rest will remain the same.

In the Air Force, the first four ranks are airmen, but in the Space Force they will be specialists. The fifth rank in the Air Force is staff sergeant, but in the Space Force the rank will just be called sergeant.

On the officer side, all the ranks are the same as the Air Force, Army and Marine Corps, from second lieutenant up to general. 

The new ranks will be effective Feb. 1, according to the memo.

Public interest in the Space Force’s rank structure picked up after Shatner, who played Capt. James T. Kirk on “Star Trek,” stumped for the service to adopt Navy ranks.

“What the heck is wrong with you?” Shatner wrote in an emoji filled op-ed for Military Times in August. “There was no Colonel Kirk; not even in the mirror universe (which is what 2020 feels like at times.) Do you know your entertainment space history?”

Some lawmakers also pushed for the Space Force to use Navy ranks. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), a Navy SEAL veteran, inserted an amendment into the initial House-passed version of the annual defense policy bill last year that would have required the Space Force to use Navy ranks.

But the amendment was stripped from the final version of the bill that became law after House and Senate negotiators decided to leave it up to the Space Force to choose its own rank structure.