The Air Force annually recognizes 12 Outstanding Airmen of the Year for superior leadership, job performance, community involvement, and personal achievements. The Air Force Association will honor the airmen at AFA’s Air & Space Conference, which begins Sept. 17 in National Harbor, Md. The Daily Report is highlighting one of this year’s outstanding airmen each day until the conference kicks off; today’s column features SrA. Nicholas A. Hurt.
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…