General Jay Raymond
Commander, U.S. Space Force
John William “Jay” Raymond was born in 1952. He grew up in Alexandria, Virginia. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy, and earned a degree in Administrative Management from Clemson University. He was commissioned into the U.S. Air Force and assigned to a strategic missile wing at Grand Forks Air Force Base.
He has been involved in the aerospace divisions of the U.S. Air Force from the beginning. After time stationed at the Pentagon, he assumed command of a space surveillance squadron located in England. Back in the U.S., he became Deputy Commander of an operations group, where he was assigned to the office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense. A year later, he returned to Vandenberg Air Force Base and assumed command of an operations group, serving there until he was reassigned to the Air Force Space Command., taking on several positions there.
He served in the War in Afghanistan and the Iraq War.
He was confirmed as the Air Force Space Command’s top general in 2016. In March 2019, he was nominated to become the Commander of the United States Space Command, and in December 2019, Raymond became the U.S. Space Force’s first Chief of Space Operations.
In the News…
The United States Space Force launched its first official mission last week from Cape Canaveral, Florida, sending a massive military communications satellite into orbit.
It is the most sophisticated, most powerful communications satellite that has ever been launched, according to officials. “All the way around the world, our troops can be communicated with, can have the high bandwidth, back-and-forth comms, imaging, and intelligence that they require, right down to a guy in a tent with a handset who’s doing his thing.”
The Space Force satellite weighs 14,500 pounds and was fastened to an Atlas V551 rocket. The satellite is considered a military and defensive priority for the U.S., as it greatly increases the ability for the Pentagon to communicate with its overseas commanders as well as ground forces.
