WASHINGTON, July 21 — John W. Raymond, the retired United States Space Force general who served as the first chief of space operations and is often described as the ‘father of the Space Force’, now sits on the boards of two private space companies, works for a private equity firm, and holds a fellowship at a conservative think tank. Raised in a military family in Alexandria, Virginia, Raymond was commissioned into the Air Force in 1984 after graduating from Clemson University with a B.S. in administrative management.
He later earned an M.S. from Central Michigan University in 1990 and an M.A. from the Naval War College in 2003.
The First Guardian
His command career includes the 5th Space Surveillance Squadron, the 30th Operations Group, Fourteenth Air Force, the Joint Force Space Component Command, and Air Force Space Command. He deployed to both the War in Afghanistan and the Iraq War. In 2016, Raymond assumed command of Air Force Space Command.
Three years later, in August 2019, he took on additional duties as unified combatant command commander following the reestablishment of U.S. Space Command. When the U.S. Space Force was established as the sixth armed service in December 2019, Raymond became its first chief of space operations and the first member of the Space Force — a transfer that ended over 35 years of service in the Air Force.
As ever, the technical reality of creating a new service from scratch meant months of bureaucratic grinding: standing up new organizations, transferring personnel from other military branches, consolidating space units scattered across the services, and setting the culture for what would become a distinct uniformed corps.
From Air Force to Space Force
Raymond is often credited as the ‘father of the Space Force’ for leading that initial standup. He relinquished his post as chief of space operations in November 2022 and retired from military service in 2023. Since retiring, he has moved into the private and policy spheres.
He joined the board of directors of Axiom Space and the board of Impulse Space, and serves as a senior managing director at Cerberus Capital Management, and is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. His post-retirement roles put him at the intersection of military space heritage and the booming commercial space economy — a transition he helped shape while in uniform.
The private sector will be watching how the former chief’s influence informs investment and strategy in the years ahead.
