Work has begun to revamp Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina into a predominantly Army facility with a small Air Force presence, following BRAC 2005 actions. The brunt of the effort falls to Air Force Reserve Command, which must dissolve its 440th Airlift Wing C-130H operations in Milwaukee, Wis., transferring its aircraft to other units and its manpower positions to Pope. At some point, Pope will pick up 16 C-130Hs. AFRC’s job is to find people to fill the transferring manpower positions. The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer talked with SMSgt. Lonnie Taylor, an AFRC recruiter, who has been in North Carolina since May trying to fill 1,400 positions, which he says is an unprecedented task.
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…