An Air Force officer who disappeared from Manas AB, Kyrgyzstan, (now called the Transit Center at Manas) on a September day in 2006 and then reappeared several days later claiming she had been kidnapped, has returned from sabbatical. Maj. Jill Metzger returned to active duty on Oct. 12 and is serving as the chief of the community program branch at Air Force District Washington, USAF spokeswoman Lt. Col. Ann Stefanek told the Daily Report Wednesday. In her new role, Metzger will work with highly visible programs in the National Capital region, such as the annual Air Force Cycling Classic and the Wounded Warrior Program. She also provides support for the military funeral honors program at Arlington National Cemetery, said Stefanek. Metzger was at the end of her four-month deployment as a personnel officer at Manas when she disappeared. She told officials that she had been abducted and managed to escape. Prior to her abduction, she was a champion marathon runner. (See Missing Major is Back from the Daily Report archives.)
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III chaired a China military briefing Oct. 27, part of a bi-weekly series of briefings with senior military commanders about China’s growing threat in the wake of an orbital hypersonics weapon test that elicited public worries from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. “What we…