HELLO FUTURE: Legacy Guardians and the Future of Space

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Americans have a history of protecting the final frontier outer space.
But the Space Force is only six years old. So
how do we honor and recognize the guardians of our
solar system, the guardians of our galaxy, the guardians who
have protected our freedoms and outer space from before there
was even a Space Force. Hello Future, it's me Kevin.
This is a dispatch from the Digital Frontier. The planet
is Earth. The year is twenty twenty six. My name
is Kevin's really on the founder of MTF dot TV's
Meet the Future. Check us out at MTF dot tv
online and you can get all of the latest episodes
on your iHeartMedia app or on our website which connects
directly to the iHeartMedia app. And today I'm exploring this
question of how do we say thank you to the
service members who keep outer space safe for decades, even
before we had a Space Force. My guest today is
Mark Dryling. I was able to interview him when I
was down in Orlando at the Space Conference the other week,
and his story is remarkable. Take a listen.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
It's the sixth birthday of the United States Space Force.
You have really helped shape this and it was announced
at this conference that you are now Legacy Guardian number two.
That's correct, that is a huge deal. Explain to us
how this came to be, because the story is really remarkable.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
Well, you know, this goes back several years the military
space community. I was part of that before my current
line of work. And I'll tell you it's roy a family,
is what it is. And you know, when they stood
up the Space Force, all of the people who were
like me, who were space operators in the in the
Air Force, so you had your career identifiers, your thirteenth
Sierras and your one Charlie six's. When they stood up
the Space Force, they took all of those people who
were currently serving and they moved him into the Space
Force for the most part, and and my old career
field and the Air Force doesn't exist at all anymore.
And so the first thing I'll say is that I
started to hear feedback from some Air Force veterans who
kind of felt like they were orphaned in a way.
And I remember one sergeant I worked with, great guy,
and he had used the word disassociated from his career field.
You don't ever want to hear someone say that, And
so that was always in the back of my mind
was we're missing something here. In addition to that, you know,
when you're a veteran, I care a lot about the
space domain. That's what I did professionally, That's how I
was raised. I guess you could say militarily, I would
always advocate for it, and I would have people ask me,
you're an Air Force vener, right, Yeah, why do you
care about the space stuff? Well, I was a space operator.
Oh your Space Force. No, I have no formal association.
So this was in the back of my mind as
an issue. And then three and a half years ago,
you know, I got out of the military because I
had a rare condition, a rare inflammatory condition, and three
and a half years ago that necessitated me getting a
liver transplant. And what I will tell you about that
process is that, first of all, I would not have
made it through that challenge if it had not been
for the discipline and attitude instilled in me in this community.
So when I say that, I really do feel that
my brothers and sisters in the space community are responsible
for helping save my life. It's because of that. They
gave me tools that gave me what I sometimes feel
was an advantage in knowing how to get through things. Secondly,
I had a very interesting phone call once a few
months before my surgery from Georgetown Hospital where they indicated
that there were too many people trying to be my
donor my life liver donor that they just didn't have
the ability to screen that many people. And I'd come
to find out over time that a lot of military people,
in particular military space folks were involved in trying to
do this. And let me tell you something that's a
very powerful thing if you think about this, that somebody
would be willing that they would make that decision, you know,
and this is not like an impulse reaction. It's very premeditated.
But they'd make the decision to put themselves in grave
danger to save another person's life.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
It's amazing. Yeah, And you and I have spoken about,
I mean, there's so much that you just share. You
and I have spoken about how the future and then
the space industry, particularly the health and medicine and research
frontier in space, and that the Space Force is protecting
in terms of the domain really is personal.

Speaker 3 (04:35):
You know, it's very personal. And and you know I
will tell you that when I look at my own
journey one hundred years ago. My existence today would be
science fiction one hundred years ago. Four hundred years ago. Yeah,
four hundred years ago. Probably witchcraft is what people would say.
They would say, you know, burn with the steak. Some
people might still say that today. But the fact of
the matter is is that I am here today because
of the genius and compassion of others, and we live
in an amazing time where we have turned death into
a fighting chance to live so that a person like
me can have another chapter or two in life. Just
think about how far we've come. People can be very
pessimistic about the future. I'm very optimistic. Again. One hundred
years ago this would have been unimaginable. But here I
am today, three and a half years later. I'm still here,
and it's a very surreal thing to think about. But
it says something about our society, how far we've come.
It also says something about I think society from the
standpoint of we live in a society where we respect
and value the integrity of the individual so much that
we are able and willing and committed to expending incredible
intellectual resources to make something like this possible. And also
other people are willing to put their name on the
line if something happens to them to also allow this.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
And I find this so interesting. One of the key
issues in terms of folks who are serving in the
Air Force, like yourself, prior to the creation of the
United States Space Force, which we're only in you know,
literally just turning six years old. But if I had
so interesting is that the Space Force culture leadership, General
Saltzman other leaders around him as well, for them to say,
we would not be here if it were not for
what came before us. Oh yeah, to recognize that as
a part of its culture and to name you legacy
guardian number two. That has to feel that your contributions mattered.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
So, so how this came about was and it really
and it's very it's very meaningful. It was very unexpected.
I don't know if it was quite deserved as much,
because I can think of so many other more extraordinary people,
to be honest, But what I will tell you is that,
you know, I woke up for my surgery. I had
my surgery on June sixth of twenty twenty two, International
Transplant Day, also D Day for World War Two historians,
and you know, four days later, I mean, I woke
up from an incredible life changing event. Four days later,
I walked two miles one day in the hospital. Eight
days later, I was back working again. And in fact,
one of the funniest parts was I was walking so
much that a few days after my surgery, I'm walking
doing laps in the recovery wars. I got tired of
seeing the same scenery, so I pressed a button, I
walked out, and I started walking down the hall, waving
to people in the house, well, hey, how's it going.
And I heard all these footsteps and I'm like, oh, shoot,
something's going on. So i put my back against the
wall to let people pass, and all of a sudden,
I had a gaggle nurses around me and they're like,
where are you going and what like you're not allowed
to escape? And I looked at him. I'm in this
hospital gown, like escape. You think I'm going down to
Georgetown looking like this? And they're like, I said, I
was just going for a walk. They're like, you are
a highly immune compromise. You should be I'm like, okay,
no one ever accused me of being the smartest person. Yeah,
that's the only time I gave them any trouble was
with my little attempt a jail break. But I started
thinking about quite a bit everything that got me through this,
and this community is very special com in the Space Force.
I really do feel like they gave me tools that
I wouldn't have had otherwise. And I started thinking about
how I could do more to help them and help
all the veterans I knew as well. And so this
this idea for this legislation was literally percolating my mind.
And I remember Bill Wolfe. We had a conversation and
we're on Zoom and I am one hundred and thirty
pounds at the time, barely into recovery, and we're talking
about this idea and he's like, this is great. So
I took it to Congressman Don Bacon, my boss, and
Congressman Don Bacon is, you know, a very caring person.
In fact, he wanted to be a live livered owner
for me. He didn't mean a few the qualifications because
there's very strangely, I mean, it's amazing how many people
can volunteer and just a little thing if you're not
the same height or something. Another friend of mine tried
to volunteer and they're like yeah, you two aren't sized
the same. So I suggested this idea to him, and
he and our National Security Advisor Pat Flood both were like, Okay,
this is awesome and yeah, we think this is good.
So he said, yeah, let's start working on this, and
we got through the NBA. It took a few years.
I will tell you that the SFA membership was very
active on the hill supporting our office in this, and
the Wolf was very very active in this.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
So pointing in perspective to anyone who's ever gone to
a school or a university or been a part of
a program that suddenly, in the blink of an eye,
for whatever reason, no longer exists, to be able to
give it a home somewhere so that it doesn't disappear,
so that the hard work of all of those individuals
or culture that you were instrumental, You and authors were
instrumental in creating from the pre foundation of the foundation
of the United States space sports. To be able to
feel like you have a home and the identity is
a part of that is huge. And so for folks
who are thinking, why should I care about legacy guardians, Well,
because they are literally the architects. They're hard work before
we even had the language for the space domain or
for these other missions, or the capabilities even that we
talk about with the United States Space work. These people
set it up and so it's got to feel good
now that it feels like you have a home.

Speaker 3 (10:20):
Well, it does nerding out a little. It's like at
the end of Star Trek four when all of a
sudden they're in the space doc and you have McCoy
who's sitting there saying the bureaucratic mentality is one constant
in the universe will get a freighter and all of
a sudden when they travel over the top of the
accessor and then you see the USS Enterprise and William
Shatter places Kirk. He's like, everyone, we've come home. Yeah,
there is a feeling of like we've come home with this,
and I hope that feeling is felt by a lot
of other people. When they start, you know, there's gonna
be an application process, I understand. And when they start
applying and they start receiving that same honor, and again,
I this is something that you know. I woke up
from my surgery and I'll admit I'm like, all right,
we got to get back to work. That was my mentality.
Maybe that's a little crazy, but I was like, all right,
I get to get back to work. I got to
get back to doing things that help other people. And
I think identity is also important for military members. My
grandfather was Army Air Corps and he was always very,
very deliberate. If someone said he was Army, he would
correct him right away and you would see him. He
lived into his nineties wearing Air Force hats. For him,
he felt more of a kinship with the Air Force.
He was Army Air Corps. And that was one other
thing that occurred to me. It's like, I've met Air
Corps veterans before who actually was Army Air Corps. Then
it became Army Air Forces, so I should correct myself there.
But you know, thinking about that history, and they didn't
do anything like this when they moved from one to
the other. That was one question I got from people
that the Army Air Forces do anything like this. After
I said, no, this was the first time you had
a service do something like this. The only thing that
happened with the Army Air Forces. Hap Arnold was the
General in charge, and I think this was some posthumously
he was posthumously moved from the retirement roles from the
Army to the Air Force.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
Awesome, thanks so much for coming on and

Speaker 3 (12:18):
Congratulations, Thank you so much.