Retired Brig. Gen. Pintard M. Dyer III, who commanded Strategic Air Command’s 12th Air Division from 1981 to 1985, died Nov. 13 in San Antonio at age 78. Dyer, who graduated from the US Naval Academy, spent 30 years in the Air Force, training to fly B-47 and B-52 aircraft. He flew 70 combat missions as a B-52 crew commander during the Vietnam War and amassed more than 3,800 flying hours over his career. He retired in August 1985. (Also read The Town Talk obituary)
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…