A Conversation with Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force and the Space Force’s Top Guardians
February 24, 2026
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CMSSF John Bentivegna:
All right. Well, good morning, everyone. I hope you enjoyed yesterday and had a good night connecting, meeting other Guardians and Airmen and industry leaders. That’s what this whole event is all about. And thanks for getting up early to join us this morning. I wanna give a quick shout out to AFA leadership and for DAF leadership for being here. You know, these events are so important when you talk about professional development and especially when you talk about connection, which is one of our values as Guardians within the Space Force. And when you, AFA, gives these opportunities, you know, yesterday, General Saltzman had a chance to get on stage and kinda talk about all the amazing things that the Space Force and the Guardians of the Space Force have done over the last year. And then General Wilsbach was on stage highlighting the dedication an Airman have to the mission. So we love to take advantage, right, of the stage, the opportunity that AFA gives us to talk about all of you. And as we were preparing for my remarks at the symposium, the team said, hey, you know, rather than maybe me just talking about the amazing Guardians that we have, why don’t we just have the Guardians here themselves and be able to brag on, talk about why they represent the values of the Space Force, what drives them every single day, what helps them make the Space Force the greatest Space Force on the Earth. So knowing that we were doing a Polaris Awards yesterday, we took advantage of it. So rather than hearing me speak and walk around the stage, I just have some phenomenal teammates who are gonna be here today. We’re just gonna talk a little bit, just have a conversation, right, nothing to worry about, like we said. Don’t be nervous. It’s only being recorded, a bunch of people in the audience, it’ll be fine, it’ll be fine. So to start with, what I’d like to do is, so hopefully everyone had a chance to kinda be here yesterday as we did the formal recognition for the recipients of the Polaris Awards. But if you could quickly just kinda go through, introduce yourselves, let us know what unit you’re from. And you know, as military members, as professionals, we also know that we don’t do this alone, we don’t serve alone. The accomplishments that we have, right, are because of the ones that are around us. And I think several of you have loved ones, or family, or someone that’s in the audience or here with you. Let us know who you brought to the Polaris Awards in AFA.
Maj. Adriane Payn:
All right, sounds good, sir. So Major Adriane Payn, I am assigned to the NRO right now, and I have my parents and my husband Kevin over there.
Spc. 4 Logan Pinder:
My name is Specialist 4 Pinder from the 76th ISRS. I’m a multi-infusion analyst. I do have my grandma here, but she’s sleeping in right now, so. She’s unfortunately not here, but she will be seeing the recording, so.
Sgt. Michael Campos:
Good morning, everybody. Thank you for coming out. I’m Sergeant Campos, I’m with the 33rd Range and Aggressor Squadron, and I have my Deputy Commander, Major Maris over there, alongside one of the best NCOs I know, Sergeant Woods. Thank you.
1st Lt. Robert Bartkowiak:
Hey, good morning. Lieutenant Bartkowiak here, coming from the Air Force Test Pilot School. Currently enrolled in the Space Test Course, but coming from, recently, the 3rd Test and Evaluation Squadron and Orbital Warfare Integrated Test Force. Banzai! And today I brought with me my wife, Jordan, who is my hero and the reason I can support the military as much as I possibly can. Thank you.
Tech. Sgt. Robert Powell:
Good morning, everybody. I’m Technical Sergeant Powell from the 37th TIS Archer Flight. I did have my wife with me. She went home to take care of the kids, but she’ll be watching the recording, I guess.
1st Lt. Cristian Montelongo:
Good morning, I’m Lieutenant Montelongo. I’m also from 37th TIS Archer Flight. I brought with me my parents with me, and they’ve been awesome being able to explore this entire event. My mom and dad.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force, John Bentivegna from the Pentagon. I brought with me my lovely wife, Kathy, who everybody knows, my better three quarters. All right, so let’s just jump right in it and have a conversation. So Major Payn. I’m sorry, yes, ma’am, you have to lead from the front, yes. So when you think about what you’ve done over the last year and what, had you be the individual who represented character for the service, you saved a month of schedule and significant funds by identifying a software deficit. In a service that must innovate at speed, how do you balance the pressures of rapid delivery with the uncompromising character required to ensure systems are flawless?
Maj. Adriane Payn:
So for me, Chief, it’s not actually a speed versus quality question. It is a character under pressure question. So as everybody heard a little bit yesterday and as I’ve been living for years, in space acquisitions, we are told to deliver faster, faster, faster and get those capabilities on orbit. But speed doesn’t always excuse you from doing the hard right thing. And as in most things in acquisitions, depends on your mission. So the mission that I currently work is very technically complex. We really have to make sure that we have all those complexities in place because otherwise we won’t be able to deliver the mission. And so a few years ago, when I first kind of got to the NRO, I sat down with my team and I was like, okay, so what are the things that we’re doing that actually contribute to us executing this mission? And so when I did that and had that kind of conversation with them, we realized that kind of leaning in and being proactive and kind of getting engaged at the subcontract base and all across the supply chain was really where we could add the most value and really ensure we are able to execute and deliver that mission. So when the team found there was a software defect in a tool that we use to program FPGA, so field programmable data arrays, there was not a failure yet. There was nothing that had gone wrong. And that’s really when character matters the most because there was no one pushing us. It’s still theoretical. We could have ignored it. We could have let the prime contractor handle it. We could have let the subcontractor figure it out on themselves, but we didn’t. We took ownership and since we had a good relationship with our subcontractor, we went directly to them and we fixed it. So we didn’t actually have to recover from any sort of a failure because we prevented one. And that was really the big thing was we prevented some small defect from becoming the larger program issue later down the line. And so to me, that’s really what the balance is. We can innovate at speed, but that doesn’t mean we have to disregard technical excellence or integrity. And the integrity matters because you start there and you raise those small issues, even when it’s inconvenient, even when you don’t want to ’cause it could cause some impact, you’re preventing stuff from further down the line. And so to me, that’s where real speed comes from. It’s discipline and risk decisions, technical excellence, and then being proactive. And that’s how you get things up there and you keep the mission going.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
You said something in your response when you said that the team took ownership of it. We talk a lot about the warfighter spirit, the warfighter ethos. And we talk about where that ethos is important regardless of what function you’re doing and where you are. And this whole conversation was about acquisition. So day to day, when you go to work and you think about the warfighter ethos and taking ownership and through an acquisitions lens, how do you inspire a team? Like what’s your, how do you think about that?
Maj. Adriane Payn:
Thank you for going off script.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Off script, yeah.
Maj. Adriane Payn:
I mean, honestly, we are the warfighter. Like we’re building and delivering those assets and capabilities that the entire joint force uses. So like, to me, that is us. Like we’re responsible for that. If we didn’t get the requirements right, if we didn’t dig into the technical excellence, if we didn’t have those conversations, cost, schedule, budget, risk, all those, there would be nothing on orbit for anyone to use. So to me, that’s how I do it. And so it’s just a constant time, it’s tying our end mission to my team and what we do. And it’s just reminding them, like, does this add value? Will this allow us to actually get our capability on orbit and do what we need to do? If the answer’s no, then we don’t do it. I cut some things that didn’t make sense for us to do ’cause they didn’t, weren’t value added. So that’s how I see it. Just constant reiteration to the team.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
I love that philosophy, right? ‘Cause we have to be mission focused regardless of what we’re doing. And we talk about that all the time, but it makes me warm inside in my heart knowing that at the tactical level of leadership, you know, a lot of things that General Saltzman and I talk about all the time are taking root in your living every single day. So thanks for doing that, I appreciate it.
Maj. Adriane Payn:
Yeah, thanks, Chief.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
All right, so Sergeant Campos. Yeah, coming over to you. All right, so your connection recognition celebrates your work in bringing the cyber and aerospace domains together. Can you share a light bulb moment when a connection forged that you forged created a new capability or understanding between these two critical domains?
Sgt. Michael Campos:
Yes, sir. So in my unit, you know, when we’re participating in these large scale exercises like a space flag, for instance, we always state that we never do cyber for cyber’s sake. Everything we do is to layer effects with other domains. So when we do a cyber effect, it’s to help an EW or OW partner perform their mission more effectively, we’re effectively a force multiplier. In my opinion, the biggest hurdle in the cyber career field is explaining the importance of what we do. I think we’re often overlooked. But when cyber goes, the communication goes with it. If you can’t access the internet, you’re forced to like call somebody or send a runner. We don’t have astronauts on a lot of our satellites ready to pick up a phone. If a ground station experiences a severe enough cyber attack a lot of times that contact window can be missed. And if there’s no way to reestablish those comms within the period that an end user needs them, that asset could just be out of the fight for that entire period. And there’s no way to rectify that without preparation and it’s easier to prepare against the attack than it is to bring it back once it’s gone. Demonstrating how important that is and watching space operators understand how interconnected cyber and space are and one of the reasons I love my job and why I love operating in those large scale exercises.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Once an aggressor?
Sgt. Michael Campos:
Always an aggressor.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
That’s right, that’s right, see, there you go. So when you talk about the work that you’re doing, especially in the cyber realm, and you’re doing a large scale exercise, can you share, are the Guardians picking it up? Like are they, understanding is the training and exposure that you’re giving them, is it making a difference, you think, at the operational level, do you see it?
Sgt. Michael Campos:
Absolutely, sir. I think just in the past few years that I’ve gotten, I got to the 527th in 2023 and in that short period of time, I’ve seen the sophistication of our cyber exercises events go from very basic, very loud, to the more stealthy, secretive, more realistic approach and watching these cyber defenders learn and understand their mission set is just so satisfying. There’s definitely an appetite and some of these CYSs are getting after it quicker, but for more sophisticated emulation of APTs, and that’s something we’re always working on and making sure that we as aggressors stay honed in our craft so that we can provide that training to them, to make a more developed Guardian, present it to SPAW 4GEN and to all of our combatant commanders.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Yeah, that’s great. We talk all the time about the criticality of training where we’re gonna fight, again, to thinking adversary, right? What you provide in that environment as aggressors coming from Delta 11 are extremely important ’cause we talk about it all the time, and we know we’re working really hard to provide the infrastructure that’s better and better for all of the Guardians to kind of hone your skill craft and working on it, but what I love about your passion and what you guys are doing is you’re not letting that stop you, right? If you don’t have the perfect simulators, have the perfect environment, OTTI’s still being invested in and we’re being good sides, but that’s not stopping you from providing the environment to the best of your ability to make sure the Guardians are honing their skill craft and learning in the cyber domain, so thanks for doing that, man. That’s awesome. Keep doing it. All right, Specialist Pinder, you’re next. You ready? All right. So you receive recognition for commitment. For your mastery of operational intelligence, what drove your personal commitment to teach yourself advanced programming to solve a problem that cut processing time from hundreds of hours to just five minutes?
Spc. 4 Logan Pinder:
Thank you, Chief, that’s a good question. So ultimately, I had recognized a problem with one of our sensors that we had on orbit. It was taking us over 100 hours to, like you said, over 100 hours to formulate intelligence from that sensor and I recognized that operational intelligence and the battle space requires that operational intelligence, that actionable, timely intelligence, and that 100 hours is unacceptable in that field. So the team leadership was looking to solve that problem by outsourcing it, which would have cost about $850,000. In lieu of that, I decided to let my commander know that, hey, actually, I have an interest in programming and I think I can fill that gap myself. And so she gave me a shot and it took me about three weeks to develop the program that cut that time. And as a result of that, we started getting operational intelligence to the warfighter when they needed it and not a week after it was over. So, and that really matters in a domain where the first shot could be the last. So yeah, no, it’s very important.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Now your functionality is Intel, correct?
Spc. 4 Logan Pinder:
Yes, yes, sir.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Yeah, and you’re doing programming.
Spc. 4 Logan Pinder:
Yes.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
And we talked yesterday, you recently just completed a program at Purdue?
Spc. 4 Logan Pinder:
That’s right, Purdue University. It was the–
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Talk a little bit about that.
Spc. 4 Logan Pinder:
Yep, so the cyber career field, they’re looking to outsource some of their training, specifically the enlisted training, to different universities. And Purdue University was selected as a test program for a cyber development program. And I had the honor to sit alongside three other professional cyber Guardians and go through this about five month program there at Purdue University. And it’s been an honor to be there, yeah.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
And you know, as a trained intel professional that the Space Force honed your training or when you came into the military, but you have this passion for cyber. And so have you seen, are there gaps and seams, or do you see them as seamlessly reliant on one another?
Spc. 4 Logan Pinder:
They are extremely reliant on each other, especially intel and cyber, well really all of them, intel, cyber, and space. And my career, it hasn’t been too long, but what I’ve noticed is that the cyber and space and Intel, they’re very separated from each other. We all work in our own domains. And if I could do anything in my career, I would love to fulfill those gaps, be a part of filling those gaps between those different domains. Because I think it’s absolutely critical that we work together rather than be separate in our own little boxes.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Yeah, and I know from a service perspective, we talk a lot about that, that there shouldn’t be any gaps and seams. And I’ve been doing this maybe a little longer than you have, and some of us out in the audience. I will tell you from what operators experience on a combat crew, in a combat squadron today, when we talk about the integration of space, cyber, and Intel specifically, it’s come a long way from back when I was combat mission ready on a weapon system when working on a crew. But that we’re never finished. There is no end, there is no finish line, end point. That integration has got to continue. And you’re an example of breaking down barriers. Just because you’re wearing a different badge or have a different code next to your personnel record, there’s a limit. So I’m glad you’re doing it. I’m glad you had a chance to do the Purdue thing too.
Spc. 4 Logan Pinder:
It’s been an honor.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Yeah, I know that Chief Amber Malski is gonna wanna talk to you and get feedback ’cause I think she helped facilitate that for us.
Spc. 4 Logan Pinder:
Oh yeah, we spoke, we spoke. She loved it, she loved it.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Good. All right, so Lieutenant Bartkowiak, or B9, Lieutenant B9, that’s what I call him.
1st Lt. Robert Bartkowiak:
Yes, Chief. Bartkowiak.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
So sir, so you were the courage recipient. And for that, because you took calculated risks that led to discovering a new system capability. Can you walk us through your thought process of taking risks you believed in even when the outcomes were maybe uncertain?
1st Lt. Robert Bartkowiak:
Yeah, absolutely. So right from the start, test is full of risks. So not only are we trying to operate a new capability in a crazy domain that you can’t even, can’t even see what’s going on, right, up in space. So you’re limited to the communications you have with your vehicle. Situational awareness is difficult. And in test, we’re focused on kind of four values when we enter test is safe, secure, effective, and efficient. And safety and security, that applies to most mission sets. But effective for us is collecting the proper data so that we can inform the warfighter and characterize that capability. And our goal is to provide a capability to the warfighter that, our goal is to provide the capability and mitigate the risk that the warfighter has to take on orbit. And so that they can have a dependable, characterized capability. And when they go into a mission, they can rely on that. And that’s very difficult because space has so many different variables that we have to run through. And so in my situation, taking risks, we’re looking at data, but we’re also looking at that safety and security component. We’re mission planning, we’re working with operators, we’re working with contractors, we’re working with so many stakeholders. And going into one of these test events that we worked through, we encountered many risks that day. And so what goes through my mind is, it’s really easy to show up to the job and say, no, we’re not gonna take that risk. This is a test and let’s go home, replan and move into the next day and try to go the next day. I think that’s easy to say no. I think it’s hard to approach the situation and say, I want to take the risk so that the warfighter doesn’t have to and characterize that capability and provide the data that we need. And so that’s what goes through my mind is if I’m saying, if I show up to the job and I say, no, we’re not gonna execute this test today, I’m saying to the warfighter, I’m gonna give you this risk and you’re gonna go to the fight with that risk. And that’s the basis of my decision. Additionally, we have some great people in the room, great team working these problems. And real time, they’re providing recommendations. We’re coming to an agreement on a path forward. And then at the end of the day, the test director makes the decision to proceed or not. Definitely want to say that I appreciate our chain of command. Our chain of command has delegated as many authorities down to my level as possible. So I can make those real time risk management decisions in place when they have an effective outcome and we can say yes and proceed. So I would say that’s what’s going through my mind.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
So you know, right before we came up on stage, we were talking about the culture in the unit and how much you appreciate it. And some of that, it started with what people were screaming at you yesterday. Can you talk about what’s the slogan for the unit?
1st Lt. Robert Bartkowiak:
Oh, for 3TES. So for 3TES, one of our slogans is bonsai. And so the idea is that run at tough problems. Say bonsai, run forward at the problem, even if it’s scary, even if it’s a huge problem that you don’t think you can conquer at your level, just run at it, do your best. And if you fail, that’s okay. The idea is that you’re gonna give it your best shot, you’re gonna work hard, and if you fail, fail forward, learn from your mistakes and apply those to future problems.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
And I think right before we came on stage, you were talking about, it’s that kind of culture right at the tactical level that enables you to show the courage and feel empowered to be able to take the risks necessary to do that.
1st Lt. Robert Bartkowiak:
Yes, absolutely. One of the things that a commander said to me when I was doing my test director certification is whatever decision you make, generally, they’re gonna back me. Just have a good reason of why you made that decision. And so that’s what goes through my mind when making these risk management decisions is have a good reason for the decision you make, press forward, take risk, and at the end of the day, we’ll learn from our mistakes and we’ll make sure those lessons learned don’t turn into lessons observed.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Thank you.
1st Lt. Robert Bartkowiak:
Thank you.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
So for the team, so that Sergeant Powell and Lieutenant Montelongo, you have the opportunity to represent the Archer Flight team up here. So I’m sure they’re in the audience just gonna judge everything you’re about to say, but no pressure, no pressure. So when you think about the team award, so Team Archer, it took a $1.7 million system, installed it with no prior acquisition or cyber experience. How did you foster a team environment where every member felt empowered with the courage to learn on the fly and lead ultimately, that led ultimately to the project being finished on time?
Tech. Sgt. Robert Powell:
Well, my personal thoughts are, not the team’s thoughts, but maybe, if we’re doing it right, then very little courage is required within the team. ‘Cause I don’t want anybody to be afraid to come to the leadership team with problems or challenges or gaps they see in our mission or capabilities. For the thinking on the fly, that sounds a lot like innovation to me. And so I kind of tied those together and that it’s really hard to innovate if you don’t know your mission very well. So giving our team members the tools and the knowledge and making sure that they know they are the experts on their system and on their mission. So there’s nobody that could do the install better than they could. They’re the ones with the full picture. So if we couldn’t do it, somebody else is gonna come in and do it and it wouldn’t be as good as we did it ourselves, are my thoughts.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
You know, General Saltzman and I, we were just, I think, down at BMT for a visit last week. And one of the Guardians there, you know, they were talking about all the different things outside of necessarily their normal job jar that they were doing and referred to him as, you know, he said, “This is what we need in Space Force, “the jack of all trades.” Guardians that’ll do what needs to get done, that startup mentality. And I think what you described is exactly the type of philosophy and culture that we need right now in the Space Force. Is that, hey, I know what has to get done, I gotta get after it, and you build that type of culture and support network from teams that allow you to do that. So based on, you know, what you’ve been able to accomplish, does that accurately kind of describe jack of all trades and just try and get after where the startup mentality from like a startup corporation?
Tech. Sgt. Robert Powell:
I would say to an extent. I don’t wanna put the pressure on our people that they have to know everything and be able to do everything. But they do need to be able to explain what they need to the people that can do it.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
So Lieutenant Montelongo, so when you think about a team, team aspect, right, that reflect all the values, all four values that we have as a service, could you share a story from your experience where you had to learn from all four Guardian values to overcome a particularly difficult challenge?
1st Lt. Cristian Montelongo:
100%. So coming into Archer Flight, I really enjoyed that they took pride in the fact that we call ourselves the premier physicist analysts in the Space Force. And there’s a lot of pride that comes into that. And the real big crux of why that’s the case is because this community that does all this important analysis is extremely small. And no one’s really required to do it across the entire force. So as Archer, we’ve really taken that on ourselves to make sure that that key important analysis is done. And this level of analysis is at the PhD level. And we take people that are just straight out of tech school, and we have to get them up to the levels to be able to do that type of analysis. And really, we’ve had to lean on each other and our core values to really be able to accomplish that. When I think about courage, it’s asking these fresh specialists right out of tech school, we’re gonna give you this problem set. And just as Sergeant Powell said, you are the expert on it. We are gonna trust you to do this analysis yourself, and we’ll give you the left and right bounds, but other than that, it’s yours to conquer. When it comes to commitment, really what we look at is what we put on our teams and our families. We are not just doing this analysis, we are also supporting other organizations within Dell 3. And we’ve asked people to change their schedules multiple times, we’ve asked their families to be able to cooperate and be adaptable with us. And that just takes a level of commitment. And the fact that our team comes in every day, and when we come with a decision, they trust that we’ve made, or we’ve thought about every single option that was available to us, and we’ve made the one that’s best for them. And just that trust level and that commitment to it, it’s something that I’ve personally been blessed to have in my first assignment. Character, again, while they are the SMEs, and they do have their own projects that they’re working on, you hear all the collaboration they do with each other, they poke holes at each other, they really make sure that they’re growing as people and making sure that we’re going that step above and really going deeper into that analysis. And last thing is connectivity, with how high our ops temple really is and how much we are relying on our people, there’s times where someone needs to take a knee, and the team understands that. And whenever we have one of our teammates that takes a knee, we really rely on each other, and someone will step up and be like, “I’ll take your analysis, I’ll take your shift, “I’ll do what needs to be done “to make sure you are coming back stronger “and better tomorrow.”
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
You know, I really appreciate when you describe, in your perspective, when you talk about commitment, that you brought the family and loved ones into that. I think that’s the first time, as I’ve talked to a Guardian, and we talk about the values that they’ve mentioned, right? The commitment of the family members and loved ones, as well, that allow us to do the things that we do. So I think that’s great, and in fact, with your family in the audience, heard ’em we say, “Family matters.” So this question I’m just gonna throw out there, if anybody wants to kinda answer it. You know, how has the increasing reality of a contested space domain changed the way you approach your daily mission and your understanding of what it takes to truly integrate air power, space power, you know, to victory?
Sgt. Michael Campos:
I’ll take that one, sir. Yeah, I appreciate it. I think my experiences in STARCOM have really opened my eyes to the reality of what our battlefield is bringing. You know, our daily mission is to prepare Guardians to succeed in a contested, degraded, and operationally limited environment. That’s kinda what we try to reflect every time we provide training to these Guardians. It’s hard. Space is hard, cyber’s hard, and trying to replicate that on ranges that give us high-fidelity movements is how we get after the best training we can get. But it certainly isn’t easy, and I think using the intel piece, as Specialist Pinder was saying, everything is so interconnected. Using our intel partners to drive our operations is how we stay up-to-date on the latest capabilities, not just on what we have, but what our adversaries are potentially using, and then replicate that in environments so that everyone knows what’s gonna come should something, you know, should the worst happen.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Yeah, absolutely. This is a free-flow conversation. Jump in.
Tech. Sgt. Robert Powell:
Just as Sergeant Campos was saying, like the intel driving the APT, you know, enumeration, that’s what I experienced at Purdue University was we kind of naturally felt, like I said, there was three cyber Guardians and then one intel Guardian myself, and when we were doing live fire training exercises, you know, no real operations or nothing like that, but we realized that, you know, intel is extremely important in driving an APT enumeration, and when we were able to actually understand what kind of threat was coming at us from a cyber perspective, and like what was attacking our network, we were way more, we were way quicker to identify the threat, contain it, and remove any traces that they had laid in our system, and so, like Sergeant Campos was saying, it’s extremely important to have that intel piece.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Anybody else? So, you know, so the kind of the theme of the symposium is integrated superiority and security, aligning space power and air power to win. From your perspective, and again, this is just open question to anybody, from your perspective, what’s the most critical element we need to get right to make this alignment a true success, and do you have any examples?
1st Lt. Robert Bartkowiak:
Chief, I would say joint training, and we need to start it early. We need to build that into the development of our Guardians. Working together is critical, because when we meet a challenge that is new to us, we’re gonna fall back on our initial training, and for example, when I was going through my biomedical equipment training as an enlisted member of the Air Force, that training was with the Navy and the Army, and I learned so much over those 10 months of how they operate. I learned the little unique things about each service and how they function, and that was valuable time that I look back and I reflect on, and I’m very thankful to have had that opportunity. I would give an example of something we’re doing now at the test pilot school, is we’re setting up a multi-domain test operations floor, and so that’s gonna allow us to test, initially with the Air Force and Space Force side by side in a secure area that we can work together and see how our capabilities integrate, and I look forward to opening that up to more services as we build out our capability.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
So you talk about, sir, and your answer, joint training is something that’s important to us. Through your experiences, as you’ve had interactions working with our joint partners, whether you know, soldiers, sailors, Marines, Airmen, from your perspective, what do they think they expect or need from you as a Guardian in the Space Force? Like how do they view you? What do you think that they want you to bring to the joint fight?
Maj. Adriane Payn:
I can tell you, Chief, that a lot of times they don’t know. They don’t know what we do. Honestly, the biggest thing I think for the Space Force is as kind of Lieutenant B9 was mentioning, right, is it is joint training. It is an understanding of all the capabilities that are available. I mean, even what we talked about in the last question, it’s the people and the understanding and being able to make those connections across services, across career fields. Like a lot of times, they have no idea what we’re even capable of doing. So when it comes to planning any sort of like, when it comes to planning anything, they don’t know how to lay in space capabilities ’cause they don’t know what we have.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Yeah, you know, sometimes it’s almost like a victim of your own success when you think about, you know, global space operations, short space access, you know, two of our core functions. We did it pretty well, you know, pretty well. And so I think sometimes to the, not knowing as Guardians, right, our responsibility to kind of bring that to the joint, and say, hey, this is what we bring to your lethality to be able to do that. And I think when you, stepping back, looking at the service, you know, and our standing up with the service components, right, to the combatant commands, I mean, that’s one of the things, right, they are working really hard to be able to say, what is it, right, so what do you Guardians do to be able to articulate that so that it is integrated? But do you have an example, obviously, as you interact where maybe the aha moment when you’re, you know, having an interaction with a joint partner, and you kind of really talk about what we do as Guardians, and they get that light bulb moment and say, ah, I didn’t realize that.
1st Lt. Cristian Montelongo:
In my personal experience, the best time I’ve had that is actually whenever we bring people down to our spaces and are able to give them a full mission brief, ’cause I think one of the biggest things that’s been a barrier in that joint environment has actually been a bit of classification, is so much of space is held up to such a high classification that when we’re in those NIPR or SIPR environments, we can’t really talk about fully what we’re able to do, but whenever we bring them down to our spaces and we start talking about, here’s what we’re doing, here’s that invisible effects we’re doing, you see that light bulb, like, oh, so that was y’all, that’s what y’all were providing, and I think that’s been the biggest example I’ve had.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Thank you. So I think we’ve got a couple minutes left, but what I wanted to kind of close with, if we could, now obviously, we’ve had a discussion where all of you have had an immense impact, not only on the service, but on your specific missions with your organizations, right, to the Guardians that you interact with every single day. So we talk about that level of impact, your ability to do that, what advice do you have to Guardians that are listening or out in the audience, you know, if you wanna make a difference, you wanna have an impact, whether it be on your flight, on your squadron, or service level impact, what advice do you have?
Maj. Adriane Payn:
Do you guys wanna go, ’cause I never gotta say this yet, but, Chief, bloom where you’re planted. It’s the thing we all hear throughout most of our careers, everybody reiterates it, but it’s 100% true, because knowing your mission, getting in the weeds technically, understanding and owning your mission, honestly, it’s small things from that point. Like, a lot of the things that I did with my team, they were small changes, they weren’t earth-shaking, they weren’t like crazy or out of bounds, and they created impact, so it’s just those little things, and we only got there because we knew our mission, and because we leaned in and we dug in, and we bloomed where we were planted. Yeah. Sorry.
Spc. 4 Logan Pinder:
Any questions, sir?
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Yeah, go ahead.
Spc. 4 Logan Pinder:
Okay. So, to the junior Guardians, I’ve seen it a lot in the past couple years, we like to complain a lot. We like to complain a lot about things. And that’s good if you can find solutions to the problems. And I think that’s what a lot of junior Guardians need the empowerment to do from leadership, and then in themselves, to not only just complain about the problems, but also find the solutions through their own mastery and their own commitment to the fight.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Thanks.
1st Lt. Cristian Montelongo:
I’d like to jump in as well. I love the banzai you just talked about, Lieutenant B9, ’cause I feel like that’s also something that I would encourage people to have when they come into the Space Force, as we are a growing service, and not everything’s fully lined out yet of what we’re being able to do. And so, having that courage to really take on those challenges and really be not afraid to fail forward, I think is a great mindset to have. So I really like that motto that y’all have.
1st Lt. Robert Bartkowiak:
Yeah, and I’ll add to that. I think it’s important you find something that you’re interested in. We’re a growing service full of opportunity. So if you have a great idea, look at Specialist Pinder, the amazing work he did, two years in the military. I remember when I was in for two years and I was still figuring out my job, still trying to figure out how to fix medical equipment, and you are out there leading the way, expanding, innovating, and developing new ways to combat the mission better. And that’s amazing.
Tech. Sgt. Robert Powell:
Major Payn read my mind. It is the small things that make a big difference. Those incremental changes and improvements every day. My commander, Colonel Eginga, likes to say, just be better tomorrow than you were today. Like, just that little bit, learn one thing, do one more thing, and small things build up over time.
Sgt. Michael Campos:
Yeah, I’d like to jump in too, sir. I think on top of becoming a subject matter expert in your field, collaborate with others. No one’s gonna do this job alone. I think it’s really important to find a mentor you trust in, that you believe will empower you. Tag alongside them, become their shadow, and when you feel like you’ve developed enough skills, yeah, be brave. Let them, attempt to fall, to fail forward. Do that banzai charge, do everything you can to make the mission better.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Well, I really appreciate you coming on stage and sharing your perspective, and the attributes and the stories that led you to being up here with us today, and being the recipients, and the individuals who embody the values of the service for this year. Now, we talked about Archer Flight, so we know that two of you are here representing. Are your teammates in the audience, you getting a shout out? All right. All right. Again, I really do appreciate the fact that you spent some time with us, and for what you’re doing every single day. I think, you know, when they get a chance to, and that’s why I really thought it was important to have this conversation. So for the squadron commanders, the flight commanders, right, the crew commanders that are in the audience or listening to this, look how important it is about the culture that we try to build every single day. The empowerment, the trust, and the connection, right, and the courage that we inspire, you know, in our Guardians to unleash them, to build a heart, solve the hard problems that we have. And it’s the little things every single day, right, that’ll make the service go forward. And I know, you know, it is very important. Sometimes it’s hard to see the change. You know, it’s like, you know, watching paint dry. But when you step back and realize, you’re making a difference. So thanks for doing that. So ladies and gentlemen, the Polaris recipients for 2026.