With the worst of the Waldo Canyon fire seemingly behind it, the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., resumed normal operations. “Although academy personnel have been recalled and normal operations have resumed, the Waldo Canyon fire is still active and extremely dependent on weather conditions,” stated academy officials on June 29 in announcing the return to normalcy. They added, “There is no immediate threat to academy property, and academy officials continue to monitor the situation closely.” Should the fire continue to spread north, they said there was “a high degree of confidence” that firefighters would be able to minimize impact to the academy. On June 29, academy officials allowed more than 2,100 airmen and family members to return to the Douglass Valley and Pine Valley housing areas and to the enlisted dormitories that were evacuated last week. They also lifted the stop-movement order on personnel coming to the academy. The academy reopened to visitors on June 30. (Colorado Springs report by TSgt. Chris Powell) (JBSA-Randolph report by Debbie Gildea) (For updates, see the academy’s Waldo Canyon fire webpage.)
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…