Arts & Sciences Magazine

By Sydney Gross

U.S. Space Force General Chance Saltzman (CAS`91) was hoping to find a college “as far away as [he] could imagine” from his hometown of Bowling Green, Ky., when he stumbled upon a Boston University admissions pamphlet in his mailbox.

“I was so naive,” Saltzman says. “I got that pamphlet and I applied. I just assumed I would get in. I realize now that it was kind of a gamble.”

That gamble paid off. At BU, Saltzman found a “new city” with a completely “different culture.” He says that his time at Boston University “opened his eyes” to new people, perspectives, and experiences—people of different religious backgrounds from his own, with different upbringings and political ideology—and taught him how to ask questions and solve problems.

Saltzman is now Chief of Space Operations for the United States Space Force, where he is charged with securing access to the space and defending critical infrastructure in Earth’s orbits. For his professional achievements and continued dedication to the college, he will be honored with an Arts & Sciences Distinguished Alumni Award in September 2024.

“To say I’m a distinguished alum, it’s humbling and it’s almost a sense of disbelief,” says Saltzman, who majored in history and minored in philosophy. “I always tell people that I could never have chartered this path out. It never would have made sense in a movie script. I was just along for the ride. I just let it unfold.”

Saltzman’s path “unfolded in positive, challenging ways,” he says. He applied after he found the pamphlet in his mailbox. And when he asked his high school guidance counselor how to pay for college, she handed him an Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFROTC) scholarship pamphlet — the only one she had in her office.

He came to BU as a physics major, as his ROTC scholarship required a technical degree. At the same time, he delved into the liberal arts, exploring history, philosophy, and other personal passions, and taking Latin to fulfill his language requirement. A history buff, he spent his free time wandering around historic sites in and around Boston, and his summers working as a tour guide on a Boston Tea Party ship, selling popcorn at a movie theater, and going to Red Sox games.

But when he got into upper-level physics classes, he started “struggling.” He didn’t understand the material and started failing quizzes. He decided to transfer to history, which had been his minor. ROTC suspended his scholarship but allowed him to stay in the ROTC program. He took out loans to pay for the final year, knowing that he had a secure job afterwards, and learned a lot in the process.

“One of the things I learned from BU, I was rarely if ever the smartest person in the room. I was always comfortable recognizing that and listening more than I talked and not being afraid to ask questions, to say ‘I just don’t understand this, can someone explain it to me?’” he says. “And those principals have played out again and again. I’m not afraid to say, ‘I don’t know,’ to be around people smarter than me, to be with people who are culturally different than me.”

After graduation, Saltzman returned to the world of physics, completing four years of active duty in the Air Force to pay back his scholarship. He graduated from Undergraduate Missile Training at Vandenberg Air Force Base—now Vandenberg Space Force Base—in California. In 1992 and received his Master of Public Administration from the University of Montana, Missoula in 1994. He also met his wife, Jennifer, while on delayed active duty in Kentucky. She became his “teammate” through the rest of the journey.

Saltzman’s brief Air Force stint quickly became 25 years, as he came to appreciate the people and the mission. In 2020, Saltzman transitioned to the Space Force, where he now serves as the Chief of Space Operations, the senior uniformed Space Force officer responsible for the organization, training and equipping of all organic and assigned space forces serving in the United States and overseas.

“The journey has been amazing, so many friends, stories, memories. I’m proud of all the successes of the younger people I have mentored along the way,” he says. “Accolades, milestones, key positions have all come with a level of excitement, appreciation, and humility.  But it’s really all of the in-between stuff, the connective tissue that forms the fabric of the journey that I’m most thankful for.”

And Saltzman says his BU education continues to make a difference in his daily work.

“What about my undergraduate experience paved the way? It got it started. It was the first step. My classes gave me tools to ask better questions, to solve problems, they shaped how I see the world,” he said. “If I were to describe military life to somebody, it’s a continuous stream of problem solving,” he added. “I’ve been able to add a lot of different people to my problem-solving skills. BU really did build the foundation on which the rest of the career sits.”