The Air Force has awarded the Bronze Star medal to Capt. Karen Rupp for her actions while deployed to Iraq as commander of the 424th Medium Truck Detachment. Rupp had deployed from Dover AFB, Del., but is now aerial port officer for the 732nd Air Mobility Squadron at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska. At the ceremony, Rupp said, “This deployment is the highlight of my career,” noting that her unit was “as close to the fight as you can get and dealt with life and death situations on a daily basis.” During her seven month tour, her unit moved 190,000 tons of cargo on the ground, compared to an annual 100,000 tons move by air at Dover. She credited the unit’s “repetitive training” as a major factor in “bringing everyone home safely.” (Elmendorf report by SrA. Laura Turner)
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…