TSgt. Mark Brady, an explosive ordnance disposal team leader with the 36th Civil Engineer Squadron at Andersen AFB, Guam, received a Bronze Star Medal on Aug. 27 for his meritorious service during a six-month deployment to Joint Base Balad, Iraq, that began last September. Brady, then a staff sergeant, is credited with helping to destroy more than 2,500 pieces of ordnance and supervising and mentoring two EOD operators during more than 50 combat missions during his time assigned to Balad’s 332nd Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron. (Andersen report by SrA. Shane Dunaway)
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…