Rumsfeld Waxes Eloquent in Colorado: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told the graduating class as the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., that they must “go beyond simply a change of a process here or of a piece of equipment there. Our country did not survive and become great through timid responses or aversion to risk. … Your charge will be to challenge inherited assumptions, and cherished habits, and seek out better approaches.” Down the road from USAFA, Rumsfeld took time to praise the efforts of US Northern Command, telling reporters that the new command’s homeland defense progress has been “truly impressive.”
F-35s from the United States, Australia, and Japan are all soaring above Andersen Air Force Base in Guam as part of Cope North, Pacific Air Forces’ largest annual multilateral exercise.