A B-17 trailing smoke overflew US airmen in World War II flight uniforms at the former Knettishall Airfield in Coney Weston, England—home of the Army Air Forces’ 388th Bombardment Group (Heavy) during the war—to salute the group’s members killed in raids over Europe. More than 200 guests attended the July 14 rededication of the monument to the group’s war dead. That date was the 70th anniversary of the first 8th Air Forces crews arriving in eastern England, according to a July 23 Air Force release. “It’s an incredibly moving experience to see the incredibly warm relationship that still exists between the local British people and the Americans,” said Olivia Leydenfrost, daughter of a former 388th BG bombardier. First erected in the 1980s, the monument recently saw the addition of two stones listing the names of the airmen lost in the war. During its time at Knettishall, the 388th BG operated B-17s. (Coney Weston report by SSgt. Megan P. Lyon)
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…