A 10 Warthog

IN DESERT STORM, THE A-10 WARTHOG WROUGHT HAVOC WITH ITS 30 MM AVENGER CANNON, MAVERICK MISSILES AND DEVASTATING BOMB-LOAD IntroductionThe US Air Force has never liked the A-10. With the exception of those who work on, maintain, repair, arm, and fly the Fairchild-Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II, the venerable Warthog, most of the blue-suit bureaucracy and the Air Staff in particular have always given short shrift to the A-10 and to its mission. As this volume was going to press, it remained unclear how long the A-10 would remain in service. While drastic cutbacks in the lean post-Desert Storm era provided a convenient excuse to write finis to the A-10 story, the proven capability of the A-10 in the tank-killing and forward air control mission was so convincing, so overwhelming, that detractors were unlikely to get rid of the Hog nearly as soon as they might like.We are not here to debate politics, especially not the politics of those who wear shade 84 blue and sit on the fourth floor, D-ring, of that funny five-sided building along the Potomac. Our message about the A-10 is for those who do work on, and fly, this remarkable machine and for those who appreciate it.Some who appreciate the Hog are crew chiefs, pilots, commanders. Others of us are enthusiasts, model-builders, shutter bugs, and historians. There are enough of us. We are here to celebreate the Hog in the 1990s, and to say through the medium of pictures-most with Randy Jolly's skilled finger on the button -that the Warthog is still around. This pictorial essay is meant to show the mean, green tank-killer as it is today, and it is meant to entertain rather than to lecture. But Desert Storm has not left our memory and, on the preceding page, we make the serious point that liberty comes at a cost, and that free men must remain prepared to employ force of arms when need is.