PETERSON SPACE FORCE BASE, Colo. --
“The purpose of today’s town hall is to connect some of the experts in this process to those who may be directly impacted by it and allow them to ask questions,” said Whiting. “This topic affects many of you directly so our primary goal must be transparency.”
During the town hall, Lutton provided an overview of the study to date and answered questions posed by the more than 100 in-person and virtual attendees.
“Our approach is to get information out to those individuals who currently and have previously served in the community - our operators, maintainers and defenders,” said Lutton. “It is our responsibility to ensure we are providing the safest launch facilities and launch control centers for our members. We are committed to being deliberate in seeing this through until we are satisfied we have a world-class environment for our personnel.”
Estimated to take approximately 12 – 14 months, the scope of the study is intentionally broad, encompassing multiple locations and the missileer and associated career fields. To date, initial results of the nearly 1,000 swipe tests and 90 air tests from three locations have been released. In total, there will be three rounds of testing to account for seasonal variations. All rounds will include surface, air and ground samples.
“We are still early in our comprehensive study of any potential health impacts to our Airmen and Guardians as a result of duty in the missile community, and we deeply appreciate the survey team's effort and hard work,” said Bussiere. “Many other tests are still being performed by our medical and bioenvironmental professionals, and as we get those results, we will provide updates to our Airmen, [Guardians], and families in a rapid and transparent manner.”
Individuals are encouraged to proactively communicate with a medical professional about any concerns they may have relating to their health.
Space Operations Command is the fight-tonight force and first Field Command of the U.S. Space Force. SpOC’s mission is to protect America and our allies in, from and to space...now and into the future.