When he was a kid, Kelani Vestil would make rockets.
When he was a bit older, he competed in the American Rocketry Challenge, the world’s largest rocket competition.
Now, Vestil’s interest has led him to a new frontier: The United States Space Force (USSF).
Around Christmastime last year, Vestil’s mother, Rebecca Fox of Brown County, sent him a news story about the first group to graduate from the new military program.
Vestil, 19, had thought about joining the Air Force, but after he read the story, he decided to join the Space Force instead.
Vestil lived until he was 6 or 7 years old in Brown County, then moved to San Antonio, Texas, where he graduated from Theodore Roosevelt High School last year. He recently returned to Indiana, where he enlisted in the service.
He is the first official recruit from Indiana, and one of only five Space Force recruits from this particular region of the United States which includes Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky and Illinois. The Air Force recruiting service is based out of San Antonio, but different recruiting squadrons cover different regions in the nation.
“It’s really competitive,” Vestil said.
“They’re doing very limited basic training right now.”
Space Force offers an array of opportunities, despite its short history, Vestil said. The new branch of the military was established in December 2019, having previously been Air Force Space Command, working alongside NASA.
“They’re taking on a new theatre of war,” Vestil said.
But these aren’t the kinds of battles you might imagine from “Star Wars.”
“Space has become essential to our security and prosperity,” the USSF website says, “so much so that we need a branch of our military dedicated to its defense, just like we have branches of the military dedicated to protecting and securing the air, land, and sea.”
For instance, satellites power the GPS technology that we use daily, allow us to surf the web and call our friends, enable first responders to communicate with each other in times of crisis, time-stamp transactions in the world financial market, and even allow us to use credit cards at gas pumps.
Space Force covers everything to do with space and even cyberspace.
Space Operations Officers oversee space surveillance and satellite command and control. Cyberspace Operations Officers are the “foremost experts on the vast world of cyberspace,” according to the job description.
“If I were to get the job I want, I’d want Space Systems Operation,” Vestil said, which would have him working with satellites, asteroids, meteors and missile launches. Space Systems Operations specialists can train in such tasks as detecting sea-launched ballistic missiles, tracking satellites, and assisting in rocket launches and space flight operations, according to Space Force’s website.
Vestil will become a Space Guardian once he graduates from basic training in Texas, he said. His recruiter said he could leave three to nine months from now, maybe even as soon as next month.
His recruiter, Technical Sergeant Chavis Kendrick, said that recruits have been showing more interest in the program, which receives the support services of the Air Force.
The Space Force has the same age and physical requirements as the Air Force. New recruits must be younger than 39 and pass a physical examination from a doctor.
Kendrick’s recruitment office on the south side of Indianapolis is the one that serves the Brown County area. There is no individual Space Force recruiter at this time.
“If you’re interested in Space Force, it’s a great opportunity,” Kendrick said. “It’s something for an individual who is innovative and interested in doing things that have never been done before.”
“There’s always opportunity out there, no matter what field,” Vestil said.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re the first or the last to do it, you’ve just got to find your way in life.”
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For more information about the United States Space Force, visit spaceforce.mil.
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