The military has a long history of using the word “guardians’ to describe those who are assigned to various departments. It’s been associated with space operations since 1983 when the Air Force Space command motto was “Guardians of the High Frontier.”

Mike Pence made the announcement that troops within the sixth branch of the military will be known as “Guardians.” He was following history and tradition by identifying that name.

Hollywood, however, is ready to lose their liberal minds. Can it be that Washington DC doesn’t know what they’ve done?

James Gunn, the director of “Guardians of the Galaxy” has been mocking Pence relentlessly since the announcement since it is so close in name to that of his movie franchise.

The Vice President made the announcement at the White House, saying:  “Soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and guardians will be defending our nation for generations to come.”

One of the first tweets from Gunn was a retweet of the VP announcement with the comment, “Can we sue this dork?”

No, Gunn, you cannot sue this “dork.” Perhaps you are the dork if you realized that you directed two movies about guardians of the galaxy and didn’t realize that the name was taken from a bit of U.S. military history in the first place.

Gunn has only been joking about suing Mike Pence…at least at this point. In Hollywood, there’s always the chance that they’ll take absurdity to the next level.

Perhaps if Pence had referred to the sixth military branch as “guardians of the galaxy,” the director of the comic book heroes based in space may have a leg to stand on. However, the simple use of the word “guardians” is enough of a common word that there would be no legal claim. That, and it would be easy to show that the military was using it long before Dan Abnett ever thought to write the screenplay.

Ahh, but which came first – the 1983 use of the Space Force motto or the comic books written by Arnold Drake that the movie’s screenplay was based on?

This is when James Gun shows that he is well aware of his history, identifying that the Guardians of the Galaxy comic created for Marvel Comics actually first appeared in 1969 – a full 14 years before the Air Force ever decided to use it.

There very well may be a “dork” somewhere along the line in the U.S. Air Force when the word “guardians” was first assigned, but it wasn’t Mike Pence.

When followers really pushed Gunn to see if he would actually try to sue, he assured everyone “I was making a joke.” He also wanted to set the record straight by explaining that the comics have been around since 1969, asking “Who should sue who?”

It’s clear that some kind of name had to be given to the military branch since each and every branch has a name for those who are enlisted. Those in the Army are referred to as soldiers just as those in the Air Force are referred to as airmen. To call anyone the wrong name is a grave insult – no one in the Marines or the Air Force wants to be referred to as a soldier.

So, those who eventually get enlisted into the Space Force will be referred to as guardians. Of course, there’s bound to be a few playful slips where an officer is identified as “Star-Lord” or a marksman is identified as “Rocket Raccoon” as a nod to the film.

That may make the Space Force full of dorks, and it would only be wise for anyone planning to enlist to make the two Guardians of the Galaxy movies required viewing before they ship off to basic training.

Guardians may not be the best possible name that the military could come up with, but Hollywood can’t do anything about it.