Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced April 15 that Dover AFB, Del., has been selected as one of the five DOD locations that have won a 2008 Commander in Chief’s Annual Award for Installation Excellence. The award recognizes these installations for outstanding and innovative efforts of the people who operate and maintain them. The other winners are: Defense Supply Center Richmond, Richmond, Va., Fort A. P. Hill, Bowling Green, Va., Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton, San Diego, Calif., and Naval Base Coronado, San Diego, Calif. “Each winning installation succeeded in providing excellent working, housing and recreational conditions,” the announcement said.
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…