The Air Force announced Feb. 9 that the remains of Maj. Kenneth Bourland, 37, of Birmingham, Ala., were found Feb. 7 at the Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where he had traveled on official business for US Southern Command on Jan. 12, the day the magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck, collapsing the hotel among other widespread damage. The brief announcement noted Bourland in June 2009 had been selected for promotion to lieutenant colonel, and USAF was processing a posthumous promotion. (Also read Birmingham News report; CBS42 TV report)
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…