The relationship between South Korea and the US has endured a decade of strained relations and may be heading into a period of upheaval, according to William Drennan, an expert on Korean Peninsula security issues. The US military presence in South Korea has become both a lightening rod for anti-American sentiment and a crutch that allows the South to gamble with its security, asserted Drennan, speaking Sept. 16 at AFA’s Air & Space Conference. Possible future upheaval has to do with leadership, as the heads of the three nations most responsible for its security change over. A conservative President took power in South Korea six months ago, ending a decade of liberal leadership that pushed a “sunshine policy” of improved relations with the corrupt North Korean dictatorship. In four months, the US will have a new President. And perhaps most significantly, there are credible reports that North Korea’s “Dear Leader” Kim Jong Il was incapacitated by a stroke in mid August. There is no known succession plan in the nuclear-armed North. The leaders may be changing, but the myriad security problems on the Korean Peninsula will likely remain the same.
Happy Birthday US Air Force: 78 Today
Sept. 18, 2025
Seventy-eight years ago today, on Sept. 18, 1947, Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred Vinson swore in Stuart Symington as the first ever Secretary of the Air Force, and the Air Force officially became the first new military service since the Revolutionary War.
