Space may be the final frontier, but to a 2011 Park Ridge High School graduate, it’s his future.
Park Ridge alum Robert Hales joined the Air Force following graduation in October 2011 and will enter into the newest branch of the U.S. military, the U.S. Space Force, on Sept. 1 when he transfers officially to the new agency at 8 a.m.
“I am among the first transferring into our nation’s newest military branch, the U.S. Space Force. Currently, there are 88 members in the USSF,” Hales wrote to Pascack Press last week. He is currently stationed in Colorado Springs, Colo.
The Space Force was launched Dec. 20, 2019 following enactment of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, which will be staffed and made fully operational over 18 months. The Space Force is an agency within the U.S. Air Force.
According to its website, the U.S. Space Force “is a military service that organizes, trains, and equips space forces in order to protect U.S. and allied interests in space and to provide space capabilities to the joint force. USSF responsibilities include developing military space professionals, acquiring military space systems, maturing the military doctrine for space power, and organizing space forces to present to our Combatant Commands.”
Hales is currently a technical sergeant, which is “considered one of the hardest enlisted ranks to make,” he wrote. He achieved the rank after only eight-and-a-half years in service versus an average of 12–14 years.
Before transferring to the Space Force, Hales served as air traffic controller at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, responsible for directing air traffic via Radar Approach Control for 30 miles around Shaw. This included arrivals and departures from Charlotte International, Columbia International, and other airports. He then managed three F-16 fighter squadrons from the 20th Fighter Wing deployment rotations.
This entailed “ensuring they had everything they needed on their deployments to support Operation Inherent Resolve (fighting ISIS). It was work around the clock,” wrote Hales.
In 2015, Hales transferred to become a Space Systems Operator and was trained at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, over a few months. He then served at Beale Air Force Base, also in California, for four years and worked to provide missile warnings and missile defense to the West Coast.
Hales said he was there at the height of North Korean escalation and operated a 10-story phased-array radar capable of tracking objects nearly 20 miles out at sea.
“Since no one was really ‘lobbing’ missiles at us since it was a Cold War-era radar built in the late ’70s, we used the radar to track satellites on Low Earth Orbit. We would track the position of the International Space Station seven times a day as it came into view, as well as tens of thousands of other objects,” Hales said.
Those efforts facilitated what are known as “conjunction assessments.”
Putting that into laymen’s terms, Hales explained, “People at Vandenberg (AFB) do screening to see if any satellites are going to come near to hitting each other within the next 72 hours, and that’s what a conjunction assessment is.”
Since moving to Colorado about a year ago, Hales has been involved with space electronic warfare and helped to stand up a new space control squadron in October 2019.
“We are one of three space electronic warfare units. Here I am the lead evaluator for the unit and I manage the inspection program as well,” he told Pascack Press.
“I’ve been privy to all things space since 2015 and have a great interest in it,” he said, explaining his upcoming transfer into the U.S. Space Force.
“I knew I wanted to join the Air Force ever since I was young. My grandmother (on my mother’s side) was in the Women’s Auxiliary Royal Air Force during World War II. She was charged with leading her troops to put up barrage balloons to protect London during the nightly bombing raids,” said Hales.
“It wasn’t until high school that I solidified that thought and followed through with it. When 2015 came around, I didn’t know much about Space Systems Operations, but I knew that space was the future. Everything is moving in that direction and I knew I wanted to be a part of something great. That’s why I transferred,” Hales told Pascack Press.
Hales and his wife, Erin, will remain in Colorado Springs following his transfer. He said his parents, Christopher and Rowena Hales, moved to Park Ridge in 1982 after emigrating from England in 1981. He has two brothers, Stephen and Jonathan.