The Defense Department announced April 30 that SrA. Jonathan A.V. Yelner, 24, of Lafayette, Calif., died April 29 near Bagram AB, Afghanistan, from wounds he received when his vehicle struck an improvised explosive device. Yelner had deployed to Afghanistan from the 28th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Ellsworth AFB, S.D.
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…