According to Casey Wardynski, Republican candidate for Alabama’s fifth congressional district, Huntsville would be the ideal home for a hypothetical U.S. Space Force (USSF) academy.
As the Air Force is moving forward with its plans to relocate the U.S. Space Command from Colorado to Huntsville, Alabama’s most populous metropolitan city is poised to further expand its role in protecting national security interests.
Should his campaign to represent North Alabama as a member of Congress prove successful, Wardynski tells Yellowhammer News that he plans to spearhead legislative efforts to establish a Huntsville-based USSF academy.
While such an ambitious legislative effort as a freshman congressman could prove to be a challenging undertaking, Wardynski contends that he is well-positioned to accomplish such an effort due to his prior military service and career experience.
A graduate of West Point, Wardynski served for more than three decades as an Army officer and retired with the rank of colonel. He is the holder of a master’s degree from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a doctorate degree from Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School.
Prior to becoming CEO of marketing and event technology firm FISH Technologies, LLC in 2017, Wardynski served for five years as superintendent of Huntsville City Schools. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2019 as assistant secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs after receiving an appointment to the post from former President Donald Trump.
According to Wardynski, the Air Force intends to commission around 120 graduates from its academy into the USSF. This officer group is poised to lead a core of around 10,000 guardians to defend the United States in the realm of space.
Wardynski notes that shortly after the Air Force was first established as its own branch within the armed forces in 1947, calls were made for the air service branch to establish an academy to create a unique identity and culture for its airmen. The candidate says he believes it is in the nation’s strategic interests to follow this path for the USSF.
“The basic concept would be to look back at three things: Identity, purpose and culture. Every service has a purpose,” says Wardynski. “The Army’s is to win the nation’s wars on land. The Air Force’s essentially is to operate as an entirely independent force to bring airpower to bear to win the nation’s wars. And the Navy’s is maritime and sea control.”
“Now we’ve got the new thing called Space Force. And it’s the adjunct to what the Army, Navy, Air Force and the Marines — it’s a force to fight in space,” he adds. “It is not the Command that fights in space but it’s the people, the doctrine, the technology which is built by a new service called Space Force under the Department of the Air Force to fight in space. And that basic concept is brand new.”
Due to the unique talent management approach the USSF will have to undertake, which is much different from other approaches in the military, Wardynski advises that the USSF should hold its own academy to appropriately prepare its officers for the challenges specific to the force.
“Space is entirely different,” continues Wardynski. “The idea that we’re going to be successful in creating a small, yet highly-capable force of experts in space combat within an organization that’s focused on airmen… probably isn’t going to cut it.”
“So the concept would be to create an educational environment, and academy and the supporting upstream educational experience for professional development for the Space Force,” he says. “The people would be charged with thinking about, preparing for and fighting operations in space – which is, as you can imagine, entirely different than the atmosphere.”
With Huntsville’s ever-increasing industrial prowess in the realm of aerospace and defense, in addition to the bountiful educational opportunities the city boasts, Wardynski advises that Redstone Arsenal holds all the makings for an academy specific to the newly-established USSF.
“To give them the jump they’re going to need to get where they need to go quickly, they really need to be immersed in a place that’s focused on space – that would be northern Alabama,” advises Wardynski. “We’ve got great educational resources here to begin that effort.”
Dylan Smith is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL
