Mike Pence had a busy Friday, starting with taking the first steps to immunize himself against coronavirus. And then he made himself the topic of a second round of viral reaction by announcing a name for what we should call Space Force troops.
Pence announced on Friday, after flexing his way through a publicly-televised COVID-19 vaccine, and said that members of Space Force will be called “guardians.” The news was echoed on Twitter by the branch’s official account.
Today, after a yearlong process that produced hundreds of submissions and research involving space professionals and members of the general public, we can finally share with you the name by which we will be known: Guardians. pic.twitter.com/Tmlff4LKW6
— United States Space Force (@SpaceForceDoD) December 18, 2020
“A name by space professionals, for space professionals,” the slogan read. The tweets celebrating the name also used the hashtag #SemperSupra, the branch’s official slogan which is latin for “always above.” Which, you know, kind of works.
The name “guardians” is essentially akin to members of the Army being called soldiers, and such, but given that the group deals with space there were some obvious jokes to be made. What are the Guardians, well, guarding? Earth? Or perhaps something more… universal? And so jokes were made, as there were some pretty obvious connections to Guardians of the Galaxy to poke fun at.
I want to be sure to use their full title accurately, so has there been any word on whether they are Earth Guardians, Space Guardians or Guardians of the Galaxy? And what is being done to keep the other services from calling them Trekkies? https://t.co/x0ceOoR03e
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) December 18, 2020
They are officially “guardians” of the galaxy?
Is this a joke? How is this NOT a joke… https://t.co/PP6KJNshns
— William LeGate
(@williamlegate) December 18, 2020
Guardians ……. of the Galaxy?
— SpaceGuardianHat (@Popehat) December 18, 2020
It took a year to tape together Star Trek and Guardians of the Galaxy?!?!? This is far more moronic than I originally thought it was.
— Being Thankful from
(@justdey) December 18, 2020
You mean like “Guardians of the Galaxy”? Are they going to enlist talking racoons??
https://t.co/jSljlIRiO6
— Max Boot (@MaxBoot) December 18, 2020
They legit named themselves the Guardians of the Galaxy. https://t.co/u7ivUbtQDD pic.twitter.com/jV2wPmjl3l
— Franklin Leonard (@franklinleonard) December 18, 2020
Trump administration uses the Starfleet insignia as the Space Force symbol, now they take the page off of Guardians of the Galaxy, can these knuckleheads come up with anything original? https://t.co/zXSMVeic3F
— David Weissman (@davidmweissman) December 18, 2020
It will certainly be interesting to see if the Netflix show named after this new branch of the armed forces will adopt the real-life name for its troops. It if, like the show itself, it will go a different direction in Season 2.