The song, “Semper Supra” (“Always Above”), joins the ranks of “The Marine’s Hymn,” “The Army Goes Rolling In” and other staples of the American military anthem repertoire. It’s also… Wait. What are you laughing? I knew as soon as I said “Space Force” this would happen. Because the Space Force is, for the foreseeable future, the New type among the military branches. Because its sudden and spontaneous public release in 2019 was largely outsourced to late-night writers’ rooms. And, yes, because it’s called Space Forceso there remains a lingering temptation not to take it seriously (and an implicit cultural authorization to proceed). Case in point: My father called this morning and asked me what I was doing. I told him I was writing about how Space Force is debuting their official song. His response: “Who wrote it? Buck Rodgers and Hammerstein?’ And we laughed and laughed. Not a bad joke for the father. But the point is: the Space Force is not known for its gravity. Trump’s extraordinary space force adventure This put the ‘Semper Supra’ creative duo of Jamie Teachenor and Sean Nelson in a difficult position. Both men are seasoned officers and military musicians: Teachenor, 42, is an Air Force veteran and former lead singer in the Air Force Academy’s Wild Blue Country band. Nelson, 39, is a master musician who serves as trombonist and staff organist for the Coast Guard band. But neither had ever written an official anthem for an entire branch of the military before. nor did he think how to write a new hymn that could sit on the same shelf as those composed a century ago. “The tradition goes back over 100 years,” Nelson said Monday on a conference call. “Figuring out where this song would fit in that tradition was so important, and so was I [wanted it] to have its own identity”. “Much is at stake,” added the Master. “It was very irritating.” Anthems tend to carry within their textures a rich whiff of the past, the patina and efficiency of old war footage, the whistle and crackle of reportage. As compact and portable as these little dogs are, they pack some serious historical punch. Take “The Marine’s Hymn.” One of the oldest songs in American military history, its iconic melody was drawn from Jacques Offenbach’s 1859 opera buff, “Geneviève de Brabant,” and its anonymously written lyrics (mapping a range “from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli”) were probably written decades before its official adoption in 1929. Or “The US Air Force Song” (aka “The Wild Blue Yonder”), which was written by a rejected World War I Air Force pilot named Robert MacArthur Crawford and won a contest held by the publisher of Liberty magazine (and fin de siecle fitness guru ) Bernarr Macfadden. It was officially approved in 1947. As most of us have come to understand the Space Force, it has no such history to sink into. There are no traditions to follow. there are no war stories to tell. His story is technically the future. But as Teachenor points out, talk of creating a military branch dedicated to what he calls “the ultimate high ground” has been going on in some form since the mid-1940s. Opinion — The US Space Force is preparing to militarize space. Good. The formation of a “Space Task Force” by NASA engineers in 1957 grew in 1961 after President John F. Kennedy’s call to put a man on the moon. In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan’s controversial “Star Wars” initiative sought to create “a shield that could protect us from nuclear missiles the way a roof protects a family from the rain.” In the 1990s, Operation Desert Storm saw the advent of GPS and satellite data that would lead to a paradigm shift in Americans’ reliance on space technologies. The creation of an official “Space Corps” was actively debated in Congress until 2017. After the Trump administration’s 2019 authorization of the Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) — and after a rocky start — the USSF launched in December . “That’s a beautiful thing, when people realize that space has a long and living history,” says Teachenor. “That it’s not just sending astronauts into space, but the people on the ground supporting all these satellites in orbit. The mission of the Space Force is one of the most important — we can’t go a day without space.” And while the Space Force’s $15.5 billion budget is a fraction of the Pentagon’s annual spending, the two musicians hope the simple presence of “Semper Supra” in rotating medleys at public ceremonies, sporting events and other forums will help at the launch of The Space Force — and its “Guardians” — into the wider public consciousness. Okay. So how does it sound? The U.S. Space Force unveiled its new song, “Semper Supra,” during the Air Force Association’s 2022 Air, Space and Cyber Conference on Sept. 20. (Video: US Space Force) Well, it sounds a lot like a military anthem. ONE lot. Like, almost too much. In response to my dad’s joke about Buck Rogers and Hammerstein, I told him that “Semper Supra” sounded like something you’d hear before the big game at Space Force High. Which, in retrospect, was kind of bad. Those looking for clarity about who the Space Force is, what they do, and why they are there won’t find it on “Semper Supra,” which is open to detail and lyrically has the soft feel of a song written by committee. . But those looking for a little hook to stick memories of their own service (in this case, as ‘Guardians’) will find ‘Semper Supra’ does the job. I guess for a song meant to revolve around this branch of the military in perpetuity, I was hoping for something… I don’t know, more distinct? In the last century, the universe has provided us with such a rich musical tableau: Gustav Holst gave us the model of the solar system, “The Planets”, in 1916. Stanley Kubrick used Johann Strauss’ antigravity waltzes and the monolithic motif derived from from the other Strauss’s “Also sprach Zarathustra” has informed our understanding of deep space since “2001” arrived in 1968. John Williams has also memorably distilled his visions of the vastness of space into universal themes — think the “five tones” of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” All this, despite the emptiness of space, as listeners we are well trained to know how it “sounds”. Maybe that’s why the deja vu of ‘Semper Supra’ felt like a disappointment. After feeling my stomach sink when I heard the unholy sound of a black hole for the first time, a brass march can’t help but sound like it’s stopping short of the mark. (I didn’t even think space travel was possible!) NASA publishes what a black hole sounds like. One review: “Cosmic horror.” But as much as I might like our new national appeal to the cosmic duty to try to capture the limitless wonder of space—that most abstract of jurisdictions—some deeper listening helped me accept that hymns aren’t just music to complain about. And they’re not just jingles designed to add a quick sparkle to dreary military conditions. Hymns are battle-tested little vessels of memory — strong enough to hold weighty stories of service and portable enough to carry across generations with the ease of a tune. Will “Semper Supra” ever find its way into the ears and hearts of Americans? This is a question for the future.
