John Raymond

Since 1865, his family has had graduates from United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, including his great great grandfather, great grandfather, grandfather, and father.

His great great grandfather, Army Brigadier General Charles Walker Raymond, graduated as the top cadet of his class in 1865.

As an Army captain, civil engineer Charles Raymond commanded a delegation that went to Northern Tasmania to time the transit of Venus in December 1874.

The following year, Raymond returned to the United States and became deputy commander of the 21st Operations Group.

A career missile and space operations officer, he has commanded the 5th Space Surveillance Squadron, 30th Operations Group, Fourteenth Air Force, Joint Force Space Component Command, and Air Force Space Command.

He has been deployed to serve in the War in Afghanistan and the Iraq War.

The following year, he was assigned to the 321st Strategic Missile Wing as a missile combat crew commander at Grand Forks Air Force Base.

Born in Monterey County, California, and raised in Alexandria, Virginia, John William Raymond is the son of Barbara Ryan and retired United States Army Colonel John Allen Raymond (1935–2016).

His father was a 1958 graduate of West Point, where he once taught astronomy.

John William Raymond (born April 30, 1962) is a retired United States Space Force general who served as the first chief of space operations from 2019 to 2022.

Raised in a military family, Raymond was commissioned into the United States Air Force in 1984 after graduating from Clemson University.

Raymond graduated from Clemson University in 1984 with a B.S. degree in administrative management before he was commissioned in the United States Air Force.

Raymond was commissioned in the Air Force in 1984 as a second lieutenant following his graduation from Clemson University.

From 1989 to 1993, Raymond was an operations center officer controller with the 1st Strategic Aerospace Division and executive officer of the 30th Space Wing at Vandenberg Air Force Base.

He later earned an M.S. degree from the Central Michigan University in 1990 and an M.A. degree in national security and strategic studies from the Naval War College in 2003.

He also attended Squadron Officer School in 1990, Air Command and Staff College in 1997, and the Joint Forces Staff College in 2007.

He also completed Air University's Combined Force Air Component Commander Course and Joint Flag Officer Warfighting Course.

In 1993, he was assigned to Air Force Space Command as chief of commercial space lift operations and assistant chief of current operations and, in 1996, as deputy director for commander-in-chief's action group.

In 1997, after attending Air Command and Staff College, Raymond was stationed at the Pentagon first as a space and missile Force programmer at the Air Force headquarters and then as chief of expeditionary aerospace force space and program integration.

He remained there until 2000, at which time he assumed command of the 5th Space Surveillance Squadron located at RAF Feltwell in England.

From 2002 to 2003, he studied at Naval War College.

For two years after that, he was assigned as a transformation strategist to the Office of the United States Secretary of Defense.

In 2005, he returned to Vandenberg Air Force Base and assumed command of the 30th Operations Group.

He held that position until 2007, when he was named Commander of the 21st Space Wing.

In 2009, Raymond was reassigned to Air Force Space Command as director of plans, programs, and analyses.

From December 2010 to July 2012, he served as vice commander of the Fifth Air Force and deputy commander of the Thirteenth Air Force at Yokota Air Base, Japan.

From July 2012 to January 2014, he served as director of plans and policy of the United States Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base.

Raymond was promoted to lieutenant general on January 31, 2014, and assumed command of the Fourteenth Air Force and the Joint Functional Component Command for Space at Vandenberg.

He replaced Lieutenant General Susan Helms who was retiring after her failed nomination as Air Force Space Command vice commander.

He relinquished command to Lieutenant General David J. Buck on August 14, 2015, to return to the Pentagon and serve as the deputy chief of staff for operations of the U.S. Air Force.

In 2016, Raymond assumed command of the Air Force Space Command and, in 2019, assumed additional duties as unified combatant command commander following the reestablishment of the U.S. Space Command.

When the U.S. Space Force was established, he became the first chief of space operations.

He also became the first member of the Space Force, ending his over 35 years of service in the Air Force.

For his work in leading the initial building of the Space Force, Raymond has been described as the "father of the Space Force".

As the first chief of space operations, he oversaw the standup of new Space Force organizations, transfer of personnel from other military branches, consolidation of space units from other services, and setting its culture.

He relinquished his post as chief of space operations in 2022 and retired from military service in 2023.

Following his retirement from military service, Raymond joined the board of directors of Axiom Space and Impulse Space.

He also serves as a senior managing director Cerberus Capital Management and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution.

Raymond was nominated for promotion to the rank of general and to the command of Air Force Space Command on September 8, 2016.

The first guardian, he served as commander of the United States Space Command from 2019 to 2020.