He joined at eighteen because he wanted the tech school that would get him out of town the longest.

This is the season finale of Spacepower Podcast. Thank you for watching, listening, and sharing episodes. We are taking a short break, and we will be back with a new season soon. We cannot wait.

Forty years later, he is the Vice Chief of Space Operations, the number two officer in the United States Space Force. There was no plan. There was no map. There was a recruiter and a string of people who kept opening doors as he was ready to walk through them.

In this episode of the Spacepower Podcast, SFA Founder and host Bill Woolf sits down with Gen. Bratton, Vice Chief of Space Operations, to close out the season with the question every young person asks when they look at this service: is there a path for me?

The answer, as Gen. Bratton tells it, is that there are a hundred of them. He was an E-1. He was a staff sergeant in the Arizona Air National Guard fixing ground radars. He was a captain who walked into his commander's office and asked for a job earmarked for a lieutenant colonel. He flew high altitude balloons over the Nevada ranges. He volunteered for a deployment to Baghdad. He found out he was going to build STARCOM in a four car parking garage.

In this conversation, Gen. Bratton discusses:

* Why he told his recruiter he wanted whichever school kept him away from home the longest, and how that decision set up everything after it
* The doors and windows framework he has used to make every career decision since, and why he says he closed as many as he opened
* What it was like to be the first National Guard officer sent to the space track of the Weapons School
* How balloon experimentation at Nellis solved a real problem for troops calling in air support from Afghan valleys
* Walking into a three and four star Army planning session in Iraq as the only space officer in the room, with no shared language
* The moment US Space Command landed on the table, and why he missed the parallel effort to stand up the Space Force entirely
* Standing up an entire field command from zero to change of command in roughly six months
* Why he believes lieutenant colonels and senior NCOs change more lives than any general ever will
* What today's specialists and second lieutenants are being taught that he did not learn until he was a colonel
* Why he says the Guardians coming up now will be better at space warfighting than he ever was

Want to be in the room for the conversations that come next? Tickets for Spacepower 2026 are available now at https://attendspacepower.org.

Hosted by Bill Woolf
Produced by Ty Holliday

*Guest:*
Gen. Bratton, Vice Chief of Space Operations, United States Space Force
He enlisted in the Air National Guard as a radar maintainer, commissioned through Officer Training School, and served as the first commander of Space Training and Readiness Command. He now serves as the second highest ranking officer in the Space Force.

Learn more about the U.S. Space Force: https://www.spaceforce.mil/
Join SFA: https://ussfa.org/
Attend Spacepower 2026: https://attendspacepower.org

Subscribe for more conversations on spacepower, national security, and the future of the space domain.

15 4

This video is private.

3 1

Nobody handed them the answers. When (now Chief of Space Operations for the U.S. Space Force) Chance Saltzman got engaged, two weeks before shipping out for missile training, neither he nor Jennifer knew what military life would demand. When he chased a brand-new weapons school, the personnel office told him it was "a terrible idea, an unproven path." So he did it. The through-line of a 35-year career and marriage turned out to be four words: we'll figure it out.

That instinct built more than a family. It helped build a service. The Space Force is still writing its identity, what it means to be a Guardian, what traditions to keep, what culture to forge from scratch, and few people have shaped that answer more directly than its Chief of Space Operations. This is the story of the character behind the stars.

In this episode of the Spacepower Podcast, SFA Founder and host Bill Woolf sits down with General Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations, and Jennifer Saltzman, back in the Space House where Bill first interviewed a brand-new CSO four years earlier, for a candid conversation about marriage, character, and how you build something that lasts without a blueprint.

In this episode:

- Why "an unproven path" was the exact reason Saltzman chose the Weapons School, and how a warning to stay away became the best career advice he ever ignored
- How a physics scholarship he couldn't finish funneled him into ICBM operations, and why he was certain he'd gotten the better end of the deal
- What it actually means that Guardians conduct combat operations from garrison, watch an adversary act in space, then drive home for soccer practice and help with math homework
- The 2007 Chinese anti-satellite test, told from the ops floor, and the moment there was no hand signal for "they destroyed the satellite"
- How the "floodgates" from missiles to space turned a generation of missileers into the Space Force's first operators
- The surreal night a Hollywood director had dinner at their house, and what saying "yes" has to do with a whole career
Standing up a service from nothing: no flag, no song, no uniform, and why "you have to pay the tax" of becoming real
- Guardian #89, the 89th Weapons School space graduate, Bowling Green High class of '89 — and why Saltzman calls it karma
- Saltzman's one regret as CSO
- Why Jennifer is his "best sensor", the things Guardians will tell her that they'll never tell the CSO
How a marriage that "grew up together" with the service became a lesson in connection and community

The Space Force will be defined by its technology and its doctrine. But this conversation is a reminder that services are built by people, and that identity, partnership, and the willingness to walk a path no one has mapped are as foundational as any capability in orbit.

Hosted by Bill Woolf
Produced by Ty Holliday

General Chance Saltzman
General B. Chance Saltzman is the second Chief of Space Operations, U.S. Space Force, and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. A former ICBM operator and space Weapons Officer, he was among the first general officers to commission into the Space Force and helped stand up its foundational operational, readiness, and intelligence processes.

Jennifer Saltzman
A three-decade military spouse and advocate for Guardian families, Jennifer has been a constant presence alongside Chance across every assignment, and, in his words, his "best sensor" for what's really happening in the force.

Learn more about the U.S. Space Force: https://www.spaceforce.mil/
Join SFA: https://ussfa.org/

Subscribe for more conversations on spacepower, national security, and the future of the space domain.

00:00 - Introduction
01:04 - Meet the Saltzmans
05:15 - Choosing a Military Path
08:00 - Transitioning to ICBM Operations
10:55 - Establishing Connections
16:20 - Moving into Space Operations & The NRO
17:40 - Weapon School: Choosing the Unproven Path
21:40 - Building A Support Network
23:25 - A Shared Love for Live Music
25:00 - The Day Space is Changed Forever.
33:45 - Balancing Combat Operations with Family Life
35:35 - Defining Multi-Domain Command & Control
37:25 - Serving as Deputy AFCENT in the Middle East
42:40 - The Birth of the Space Force
46:25 - Building the Foundation of a New Service
52:00 - Reflecting on the Tenure as Chief
54:45 - Listening to Guardians: The Importance of Connection
57:20 - Closing Thoughts

32 4