Space Force has a Lying Problem

Pubic Disclosure: burner account. Sorry for the length of this rant. I am choosing to write this on reddit because it seems to be the most reliable forum to discuss issues and share relevant information within the USSF (oddly enough).

The Space Force has a problem, and that problem is that lying is a culturally accepted practice.

Since I transferred over to the Space Force, I struggled to give words to a phenomenon that I encounter in almost every part of the service but after a long time and self-reflection, I finally was able to put a word to it. Space Force Lies. Not simply scattered groups of individuals who do it to gain a personal advantage and fail to be caught but something that manifests in nearly every facet of daily practice that it has not become just accepted, it’s structurally taught and encouraged. Lying is so pervasive and ingrained that people are desensitized and culturally incentivized to do it.

Now, before everyone levels accusations that this is in every service, I fully acknowledge that I saw liars in my previous service, and I have no doubt it occurs in to some degree every branch (humans are human).  However, what I witnessed were individuals who lied, a few were caught and punished, most others not, but at no point did I feel like the service itself promoted or incentivized lying.

There are several examples demonstrating the structural teaching, incentivizing, and rewarding of lying. These examples include the current EPR/OPR structure and writing style, commander’s awards programs, unit readiness assessments, and most debrief reports. While I can go into detail on each one of these examples, that is not the point of this rant. The point is that in each have informal, self-imposed, expectations that are taught and enforced (typically by those who were rewarded for lying) that to be successful that things must be quantified otherwise they are not praiseworthy, exaggeration and embellishment is accepted (at times outright encouraged), anything but stellar is bad, and that technology and innovation can overcome any lack of resource or preparation. In the end it all ends up being one big lie, perpetuated and reinforced by itself.

The only example I will provide because to me it personifies the issue in its entirety. At one point I was asked to judge quarterly award packets. I looked through over 25 packets and at the end I realized: 1) not one had used a single verb in writing the narrative, 2) every single packet used numbers that were 4 or 5 orders of magnitude higher than was realistic, and 3) that in all but 1, no one had done anything but be passive observers to actions taking place on the other side of the world but didn’t shy from attempting to take credit like they were in the middle of it. In the end it didn’t matter what I said or did because I realized the problem was culturally embedded into the USSF.

I don’t have any concrete recommendations on how to fix this problem because the people who must implement and sustain any change are the very same people who have been rewarded by structural lying. However, I will provide a warning that if the USSF doesn’t work to implement changes to structural systems (i.e. evals, awards, promotions, etc.) and publicly out and punish serious offenders, then the organization will suffer later when you have the first true Guardians who think this is okay and right because they have never experience anything else.

Edit #1: Looking through the comments I see that my overall point may have been missed the moment I mentioned the EPR/OPR and command award system. While both of those are extremely frustrating and should be radically overhauled or replaced altogether those are just symptoms of a larger problem. So allow me to be clear on what I am trying to say. I see Guardians lying every day. Its most pervasive in people who are more senior but I am starting to see some of the same behavior in Guardians who came in about 3-4 years now and I honestly believe it is learned, culturally incentivized behavior. I personally believe this is contributing to what I think is a major divergence in understanding between USSF senior decision makers and the rest of the force because they are likely not getting the real story.