Geez! And I thought my woman was tough on the ride. ;D

 

Those things are my favorites. They were coming back shot up in the first gulf war and some of the pilots didn't realize they were hit. It was great watching them fire at the ranges. When that gatling goes, it sounds like a ships fog horn. Over 4000 rounds a minute and you can't really pick out the individual shots.

 

i'm pretty sure they are based out of Whidby island Washington state... and only a couple of other bases in the US. I think there was talk after the 1st gulf war that the A-10's were gonna be phased out, but they are awesome tank killers and such good ground support aircraft. Glad they kept em.

 

A few years back the Air Force said they were going to replace the A-10's with the new F-15E's. I just laughed when I herd that. No way can an F-15 get down in the dirt like an A-10. Saw one at the Dayton Air Show and the things are way grazy in the sky. The guy did a snap roll and it looked like the plane was falling out or the sky. Pulled her up about 500' off the deck released some flares and was gone. <br><br>They fire a depleted Uranium shell, that they say will peirce any armor known to man.<br><br>No wonder the Iraqi's just leave the tanks and run. <br><br>DB

 

[quote author=goldenears link=board=10;threadid=13360;start=15#126316 date=1049947180]<br>i'm pretty sure they are based out of Whidby island Washington state... and only a couple of other bases in the US. I think there was talk after the 1st gulf war that the A-10's were gonna be phased out, but they are awesome tank killers and such good ground support aircraft. Glad they kept em. <br>[/quote]<br><br>They are also based out of Barksdale AFB in Shreveport, LA. We have a couple 1400 hp gas compressors on the Base property. We were doing some maintenance on one of them while the other was running, and all of a sudden two A-10s would scream over the trees. Scared the crap out of me.

 

[quote author=goldenears link=board=10;threadid=13360;start=15#126316 date=1049947180]<br>i'm pretty sure they are based out of Whidby island Washington state... and only a couple of other bases in the US. I think there was talk after the 1st gulf war that the A-10's were gonna be phased out, but they are awesome tank killers and such good ground support aircraft. Glad they kept em. <br>[/quote]<br><br>Uh, just a point of clarification. Whidbey Island is a NAVAL Air Station. The aircraft type you're thinking of associated with Whidbey NAS is the A-6 Intruder, in it's own right a very nasty weapon. The A-10's are a US Air Force resource and located at several bases throughout the US and overseas.<br><br>~Dave

 

The gattling gun is a GAU-8, 30 mm cannon, and can shoot conventional, HE, or depleted uranium core ordinance. The output of the cannon has more recoil than both engines combined at full power, so when they open up with it they lose airspeed noticably.

 

I saw a piece on this particular Warthog last night - the pilot is a very nice looking lady whose call sign is KC - short for &quot;Killer Chick&quot;. The other two female pilots in that squadron are &quot;Thumper&quot; and &quot;Bam&quot; if I remember correctly.<br><br>That is one lady I would love to catch a ride with ;D<br><br>She kept her wits about her - she knew she was hit because the bird banked hard left on her - she got it under control and &quot;really didn't want to bail out over Baghdad&quot; so she muscled it back to base.<br><br>I can hear the kids now - &quot;Your Momma wears Army boots but my Momma flies a Warthog!&quot;

 

If memory serves me right I do believe that they were refferred to as the &quot;Devil's Cross&quot; by the russkies during the cold war. Gotta love that straight wing!

 

The one that was shot down was with the Air-Gaurd here in Battle Creek, Mi. Use to watch them at the range in Camp Grayling while working on the O.P.

 

We,ve got a few stationed here too.<br><br><br><br><br>And check out www.a-10.org for 'HOG fans

 

Don't know if they still have it there but I was in the 926th Fighter Group a USAFR unit stationed at Belle Chase Naval Air Station in Louisiana. They flew WartHogs in the first Gulf War then changed to F-16's after. They had the A-10 that the group commander flew over there on static display. When they patched all the holes they just primed them so you could see how bad it was shot up. It was named the Desert Dawling.<br>Dawling was the Boss's wifes name. They had a special on Wings one time that showed him coming in after the mission with pieces missing off of the plane, most of one gear was trashed. When he landed it pulled hard to the side and it skidded off the runway. But he got out in one piece. First they pinned a medal on him for a succesful mission then in private they chewed him out for flying such a dangerous mission. But he was the kind of guy that led from the front. He was the best Colonel I ever served under and had a true open door policy.