U.S. SPACE COMMAND:
WILD BLUE
By Arthur G. Sharp
W
hen the newly created U.S. Air Force adopted "The U.S. Air Force" as its official song in 1947 few people envisioned what
shape on September 1, 1982, when the U.S. Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) was activated. They have yet to be defined finitely, although the AFSPC itself has disappeared into the sun.
its opening two lines, “Off we go into the
The possibility of using space as a battlefield—or anything
wild blue yonder, climbing high into the sun” would mean in
else—was practically unthinkable until October 4, 1957,
the future. There was no concept of how far the “wild blue
when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial
yonder’s” parameters spread or how high toward the sun
Earth satellite. That achievement set in motion a race among
Air Force fliers would soar. Those parameters began taking
nations and commercial ventures to implement their own
22 | AIR POWER: 75 TH Anniversary of the U.S. Air Force
