Helen Weaver, a historian for the past 37 years at the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell AFB, Ala., and a government employee overall for 52 years, is retiring Friday. Weaver entered government service fresh out of high school in 1957 by joining the VA’s office in Montgomery, Ala. After several Air Force jobs at home and abroad and a stint with the Navy, she returned to Maxwell in 1972, joining the AFHRA. In her current position, which she’s had since 1978, she helps track the lineage of USAF units by keeping tabs on them for changes. Weaver said she has enjoyed all the years, especially the ones at the historical agency, and her job has been very rewarding. Her immediate plan after retiring is to travel. (Maxwell report by Carl Bergquist)
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…