A fresh crop of 1,274 basic cadet trainees started their in-processing and entered basic cadet training on June 24 at the Air Force Academy in Colorado. Of these appointees, who make up the academy’s class of 2014, there are 291 women (22.8 percent of the class) and 350 minorities (27.4 percent), including black (7.9 percent), Hispanic (8.9 percent), native American (one percent), and Pacific islander (9.8 percent). Basic cadet training runs through July 31. The Academy’s fall semester starts on Aug. 7. (Air Force Academy report by John Van Winkle)
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…