Name: Space Force chief master sergeant celebrates six years of new branch
Uploaded: 2025-12-19T17:48:38.482Z
Duration: 5 min 1 s
Description: John F. Bentivegna, the chief master sergeant of the Space Force, joined CBS News as the branch celebrates its sixth birthday.

John F. Bentivegna, the chief master sergeant of the Space Force, joined CBS News as the branch celebrates its sixth birthday.

Washington

The United States Space Force is celebrating its sixth anniversary since being established as the newest branch of the U.S. military. Chief Master Sergeant John Bentivenia, the highest enlisted leader in the Space Force, discussed the branch's evolution from a specialized team under the Air Force to a full military service, emphasizing strong recruitment and the development of a unique organizational culture.

Bentivenia highlighted the Space Force's integration into the broader military structure, its critical role in national security, and recent executive actions supporting American space superiority. He also noted the strong partnership with the Air Force and the commitment to ensuring U.S. interests are protected in space.

Space Force chief master sergeant celebrates six years of new branch

The United States Space Force is celebrating its sixth birthday tomorrow. It is, of course, the newest military branch that was formed during the first Trump administration. It is responsible for protecting and defending the U.S. both here on Earth and in orbit. Chief Master Sergeant John Bentivenia is here to tell us more. He holds the highest enlisted rank of leadership at the U.S. Space Force. Always good to see you, sir. Good to see you. Happy holidays. Happy holidays to you and yours. For our audience to understand, give us a sense of the accomplishments that you've been able to undertake since the Space Force was founded. Yeah, so, you know, it's been six years and it's been an amazing six years. And the analogy that we like to use is, think about football. You know, we were a special team under the United States Air Force as a major command prior to 2019. So, when we were established, essentially, it was a special team, a really good special team, and told, you've got to become a football franchise. So for the past six years, we've been building from a special team to a franchise. How are you going to scout for talent? What's the stadium going to look like? Who's going to sell tickets? What are the marketing relationships that you build? How are you going to pay for it all? So it has been that transformation from a special team to building a franchise, really, which is what a service does within the Department of War. So we've had a lot of strides over the past six years getting to that point. And for you, particularly, what has been the most fulfilling thing that you've been able to see and do as the highest enlisted, right? The amazing young men and women who are coming to join the Space Force. Yeah, we were just talking about that. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, our recruiting has been extremely strong. You know, we recruit on the enlisted side about 800 per year, and we have thousands that apply. For the officer side, we were just talking about the Air Force Academy. We get about 10% of the graduating class out of the Air Force Academy, but we have hundreds that apply for about 100 positions. So recruiting is great, but when I get a chance to go out and meet these young men and women when they're in that initial stages of transitioning from a civilian into what we call ourselves guardians, it's just so inspiring to see why they want to join the service and the immense talent they bring to the nation. It's so rewarding to kind of see that culture that we're building. So you know, the Space Force is, as we've talked about, it's only about six years old, but you've been working on these space projects for many years. So now that you are a franchise, appropriation from Congress and funds that are coming to the Space Force, how has that helped tailor the mission going forward? You know, part of that franchise building, as you will, is us figuring out, you know, how as a service, like all the other services, how do we organize forces? How do we train forces? How do we present forces to the combatant commands? Because as services, that's what we all do. So whether the Army, the Air Force, or the Navy, we present forces to the combatant commands. We've done a lot of great things to be able to formalize what that is and understand that we are part of the joint force and the advocacy that we've gotten from our brothers and sisters in the other services has really been phenomenal, I guess, to that point, and I'm really proud of that. Yeah. Let's talk about national security. How vital is your mission, the mission of Space Force, to our national security just here on Earth? Yeah. You know, if you think about what history tells us, every physical domain that humankind has endeavored into, land, sea, air, has resulted in exploration, opportunity, and a financial benefit. Right? Space is no different. And our competitors understand that. So the role of the United States Space Force is to make sure that we secure our nation's interests in from or to space. You know, yesterday, the president signed an executive order, the American Space Superiority. That's key to that. It's not just militarily, but how do we unleash the space domain so explorers can explore, investors can invest, and we have free and unfettered access to that for the benefit of the nation. And as guardians, that's what we do. This is sort of tongue-in-cheek, but, you know, like one of my closest friends, when I was a young man, I was in the Army, ROTC, joined the Army. He was in the Marine Corps, and he retired as a Marine major. But he used to say, like, yeah, we're the Marine Corps, but we still get the Navy's hand-me-downs, right? And I don't think at this point Space Force is getting any hand-me-downs from the Army, because, from the Air Force, because you are a full service. That's right. You're not a department of the Air Force. You are... That's right. So under the department, just like on the Navy, there's a department of the Navy, there's the Navy, and there's the Marine Corps. So very similar. We're under the department of the Air Force, so Secretary Mink is the secretary, and we have both the United States Air Force and the United States Space Force. So we are two services within the same, you know, and it's been great. We rely, our partnership with the Air Force is very strong. You go to our bases, and we call them power projection platforms, whether it be Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado or Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. There's a lot of airmen there, because they operate and execute the power projection platforms by which we, as guardians, project space power across the world. Love it. Always good to see you, sir. Thank you so much for stopping by. Thank you. I appreciate it. Hope to see you again next year. Yeah, you're not going to retire on us, are you? No, I don't think so. I love what I'm doing. My wife and Kathy and I love getting a chance to engage with guardians and do good things. Well, we appreciate you, as always. Thank you for your service. Thank you very much. Thank you. And thanks to your wife, too. Merry Christmas. Yeah, Merry Christmas to you. Thank you.

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