LONDON, Ohio — Jim Skaggs, 18, was worried he may be stuck in a dead-end job after graduating from London High School in 2020.
Skaggs says he wasn’t interested in going to college and was considering joining the Air Force.
It was while talking with his recruiter that he first learned about Space Force.
“I'm like sign me on, I have a passion for this stuff. I love space,” Skaggs said.
But it wouldn’t be that easy.
At the time there wasn’t a slot open and he needed to pass an aptitude test to see if he qualified to join the Space Force.
Skaggs failed the first time he took the test but passed it the second time.
It was at that time his recruiter told him about a slot that was open, and Skaggs became the only person from the central Ohio area to snag it.
“My passion is space and you tell me there's a military branch specifically for space? It just aligned,” he said.
Former President Donald Trump created Space Force in 2018, making it the sixth branch of the military.
Space Force replaces Air Force Space Command and is designed to monitor military satellites and tracks more than 24,000 objects in space.
In December 2019, Congress established the Space Force through the annual National Defense Authorization Act.
President Joe Biden, for his part, has given no indication that he will seek to overturn the creation of the Space Force.
Meanwhile, Skagg's father James, a Marine veteran, couldn't be more proud.
“For him to take the step into a brand new service is awesome you couldn't' ask for more,” he said.
Soon Skaggs will train to be a radio frequency operator with the goal of working in intelligence, counterintelligence and global communication including encryption.
He will be sworn in on March 15.
He is just the second person from Ohio to be accepted into the Space Force program.