Capt. Kenneth McGrew, executive officer to the commander of Air University’s Jeanne M. Holm Center for Officer Accessions and Citizen Development at Maxwell AFB, Ala., received a Bronze Star Medal on July 24 for his meritorious service as an intelligence officer assigned the Kapisa and Parwan provincial reconstruction team in Afghanistan from November 2008 to July 2009. The Air Force recognized McGrew, a native of Houston, for his “courage and commitment to mission accomplishment in a combat zone.” During the deployment, he participated in more than 50 combat patrols outside of the wire and produced more than 200 intelligence summaries. McGrew is currently attending Maxwell’s Squadron Officer School and is scheduled to report to the National Security Agency at Ft. Meade, Md., next month. (Maxwell report by SrA. Melissa Copeland)
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…