A10 gear up

[MooneyMitch]

32 minutes ago, 1964-M20E said:

A-10 is the best ground support aircraft built!! JMHO

Yeah man, it’s a real killer! 

[Yooper Rocketman]

We had a speaker at our LOBO (Lancair Owners & Builders Organization) Banquet several years ago at Oshkosh that was a retired Air Force A-10 “combat” pilot.  He talked and presented a slide show on the darkest day in his Air Force flying career.  They routinely flew REALLY LONG missions, as they didn’t have enough aircraft and pilots during wartime to cover the ground crews if they didn’t.  
 
I believe it was Afghanistan and he was flying with one other A-10 when the ground forces were becoming overrun in a building “campus” (4-6 buildings).  The ground “Officer in Charge” called for an air strike ...... really close to their actual position........ in desperation they would die from enemy attack if they didn’t.   This pilot queried 3 times before releasing bombs, wanting absolute assurance he and the officer where”on the same page”.   
 

They weren’t....... and he and his other A-10 delivered bombs that resulted in “friendly fire” casualties.  It clearly was an event that was incredibly painful to him many years later.   Investigators later determined the A-10’s were given wrong coordinates.  That determination did nothing for his extreme pain in his actions that day.   
 

As a vet, I can say my time in the service was a cake walk compared to what those serving during conflicts encountered!   I don’t hold a candle to those guys!!!

Tom

[gsxrpilot]

My first encounter with the A10 was in 1986. I was a college student and spending my summer driving a Ski Nautique and teaching kids to water ski, trick, and barefoot on Lake Wateree in South Carolina. Shaw Air Force base was on the other side of the lake. We would see those A10's come across the lake low enough to be pulling up water behind their engines. They would sometimes adjust course left or right around our boat. It was a thrill for me to watch as well the kids. It was like an airshow in the air over our boat nearly every day that summer.