Wednesday, May 28, 2003
SAVE THE HOG!
My old high school friend Mike Hall is blogging about an item in -- of all places -- the NYT about the Air Force's continuing efforts to permanently ground the A-10 Thunderbolt II, more affectionately known as the Warthog. This piece repeats the idea, expressed many times, that the Air Force is institutionally opposed to the role of close air support and that the jet-jockeys who run the Air Force's program offices can't work up any enthusiasm for the subsonic and just plain ugly A-10. If the Air Force succeeds in killing the Hog, they'll have used up all of the goodwill in my book they gained for their performance in GWII.
Speaking of which, it's worth remembering what was perhaps the most compelling story about the Hog from GWII, the amazing survival of Capt. Kim "Killer Chick" Campbell, who flew her heavily shot-up T-Bolt back to her base using the plane's back-up mechanical controls. Here's the story from Capt. Campbell's home-town paper, the San Jose Mercury News, and here's a pic of her checking out the damage to her bird; both links courtesy of Warthog Territory, the definitive source for all things Hoggish on the net.
GB, THHotA
posted by Greg 8:17 AM
