Retired Lt. Gen. Gordon M Graham died of a stroke March 22 at his home in Virginia, according to an April 12 Washington Post report. Graham, who was 90, flew 73 combat missions in the P-51 Mustang during World War II, amassing, according to the Air Force Historical Research Agency, seven victory credits. (Note that the Air Force biography credits him with 16.5 credits, but AFHRA stands by its total.) Graham served in a variety of staff and command positions and flew several aircraft, including the F-84F, F-100, and F-4 and RF-4, in which he flew 146 combat missions during the Vietnam War.
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…