The first service of the United States Space Force Honor Guard at Arlington

Arlington National Cemetery has been the scene of all kinds of funerals for military personnel who served the United States for many years.

Arlington, the largest military cemetery in the world and the grave where there is always a sentinel
The burial of a young US sailor who fell at Pearl Harbor 83 years later

Recently, that famous cemetery witnessed something rare: a memorial service organized jointly by the Air Force (USAF) and the United States Space Force (USSF), the youngest (it was founded on December 20, 2019) and smallest (fewer than 10,000 men and women) branch of the US Armed Forces, which has not created a new service branch since the USAF's founding in 1947.

That funeral service consisted of the transfer to Arlington of the remains of Brigadier General (R) Mark A. Baird (above these lines), who died on November 30, 2023, and who served in the USAF from 1989 to 2019. Beth Ann, Baird's widow, noted that her husband had always wanted to be buried in Arlington, since he had served in the USAF Honor Guard that provides escort services at funerals in that cemetery.

The ceremony took place on May 21. It included the participation of the USAF Band and a color guard consisting of 22 USAF Airmen and 22 USSF Guardians (as members of the two forces are known, respectively), as well as an honor team consisting of three Airmen and two Guardians. It should be noted that this was the first service of the U.S. Space Force Honor Guard in Arlington. The Guard, which is based at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, D.C., was established on August 30, 2023, and consists of 43 Guardians.

Arlington National Cemetery has explained the USSF's participation in this event by a retired USAF General, noting that it is due to Baird's instrumental work in the creation of the United States Space Force, serving as deputy director of the Planning Task Force that gave rise to that new branch of service, just before retiring. Already in civilian life, Beird worked on space programs at Lockheed Martin and later served as president of VOX Space, a company belonging to Virgin Orbit.

During the funeral, Space Force Deputy Chief of Space Operations General Michael Guetlein presented the U.S. flag to Beird's widow, Beth Ann, who was accompanied at the ceremony by her three daughters.

This event was also an opportunity to see the USSF flag flying. Its black background includes the USSF emblem in the center (very similar to that of the Air Force Space Command, created in September 1982) and the year of its creation, 2019, in Roman numerals.

You can watch the video of this funeral service here, which was published today by Arlington National Cemetery on its YouTube channel:

The USSF is not very visible compared to the USAF, the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard, the other service branches of the US Armed Forces. The USSF is responsible for managing 77 space satellites and nine bases, including the space rocket launch facilities that were operated by the USAF until 2019: Cape Canaveral and Patrick in Florida, and Vandenberg in California.

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Image sources: Arlington National Cemetery / U.S. Air Force / U.S. Space Force.