When Lt. Gen. Jay Raymond left his post at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, to join the Pentagon last August as Air Force deputy chief of staff for operations, the move was seen as a big win for the military space community. Raymond has spent most of his 30-year military career in space operations. The Clemson grad started his service at the tail end of the Cold War in a Minuteman missile silo, deployed to Southwest Asia after 9/11 to serve as director of space operations during Operation Enduring Freedom, and took over as commander of the 14th Air Force in 2014, leading the 19,500 men and women responsible for missile warning, space situational awareness, satellite operations, space launch and range operations.
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