The US Air Force Academy has identified 67 known cases of the H1N1 flu, the so-called Swine Flu, and a total of 121 cadets who show flu-like symptoms, as of July 13. Just three days earlier, the academy had positively identified only 15 cadets with the H1N1 virus, which the World Health Organization on June 11 had termed a global pandemic with its spread to 70 countries. Because of the outbreak, Academy officials took the precaution of limiting all cadets to the academy grounds during a traditional downtime known as “Doolie Day Out.” According to the latest CDC data (as of July 4), there have been 211 deaths in the US out of more than 37,000 probable cases of Swine Flu.
Air Force exercises in the Indo-Pacific may soon get even bigger and more robust, as lawmakers move to invest more than $620 million in such efforts. The bulk of that money, contained in a $150 billion reconciliation package currently making its way through Congress, is $532.6 million for earmarked for…