Citizens of the United States watched for days as the Chinese balloon traveled over their heads across the country. For 7 straight days, America heard that the balloon was loose over U.S. airspace and waited for the U.S. military to shoot it down. On its diagonal final path across the southeast of the continental U.S. military planes from Virginia followed the balloon. Navy ships waited offshore of South Carolina to pick up debris from the takedown that was planned to hap …