An entry in Monday’s column failed to mention the contribution of the airmen of the 36th Airlift Squadron at Yokota AB, Japan, to the success of the 737th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron in Southwest Asia. The expeditionary unit, a C-130H squadron operating from an air base in the region, flew 10,000 missions alone last year in support of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. And, as a reader pointed out to us, Yokota airmen were there making that possible, along with members of the 40th AS at Dyess AFB, Tex., who were mentioned in the earlier entry, which we have amended.
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…