Peter C. Smith - Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II: The Warthog Ground Attack Aircraft

This brace is from the 917 th Tactical Fighter Group, AFRES. ( Combined Military Services Digital Photographic Files (CMSDPF) ).

You are SLOW, A-10, the F-16C screams,

You stagger so painfully across the sky,

While I soar effortlessly five miles high,

I turn, and I twist, and I dive, and I zoom,

I tear azure sky with my transonic boom!

(The A-10 says nothing, just goes on killing tanks; thwarting the dictators dreams.)

You are UGLY, A-10, the F-15E sneers,

Straight wings, high engines, an angular Geek,

My lines flow and blend, aerodynamic and sleek,

Parting the sunlit sky, with my roar and my flash,

While you crawl down in the mud, with the troops, in the hash.

(The A-10 says nothing, just goes on culling tanks, causing the enemy tears.)

You are AWKWARD, A-10, the Apache whoops out,

My blades take me any place, Im dainty, Im neat,

And I pack quite a punch, guns and missiles complete,

(While its true that just one hit brings me down in a pile,

Yet you take hit after hit after hit, and still keep on fighting in style.)

(The A-10 says nothing, too busy with tanks, turning each victory into a rout!)

You are OLD, A-10, the JSF boasts and brags,

Im a fledgling, everything desirable and grand,

I can fly from a deck, I can fly from the land,

(After billions of dollars, Ive now got into the air,

Your day is clearly done, my day is set fair, and Ill replace you,

Not down there, but way up here, Just wait, youll see its true!)

(The A-10 says nothing, continues chewing up tanks, culling the evil hosts!)

Yup A-10 says nothing, gets on with the job; she is only a cog.

Without bragging, without fuss,

Without expecting much thanks,

Killing Tanks, Killing Tanks, Killing Tanks, KILLING TANKS!

GIs on the ground raise their arms in relief,

As T-72s crumple, causing the enemy high grief,

(Still the A-10 says nothing, but she thinks to herself,

Just doin my job boys, Im GLAD Im a Hawg!)

PETER C. SMITH, 2000 (amended 2019).

RECENT BOOKS BY PETER C. SMITH

Combat Biplanes of World War II (Pen & Sword)

Junkers Ju.87 Stuka (Crcy)

Midway Dauntless Victory (Pen & Sword)

Petlyakov Pe-2 Peshka (Frontline)

Vengeance in Battle (Pen & Sword)

Dauntless in Battle ( Pen & Sword)

See all Peter C. Smiths books at www.dive-bombers.co.uk

PAEAN TO THE WARTHOG!

You love a lot of things if you live around them, but there isnt any woman and there isnt any horse, not any before, nor any after, that is as lovely as a great airplane. And men who love them are faithful to them even though they leave them for others. A man has only one virginity to lose in fighters, and if it is a lovely plane he loses it to, there his heart will ever be.

Ernest Hemingway.

The level to which the requirements of the army fighting a ground war and requiring close support from the air, whether in offence or defence, should be provided by an independent air force has been one of the most controversial and long-lasting arguments in the brief history of air warfare almost ever since man first converted the aircraft to war purposes. The arguments began as early as 1917 following widespread use of low-flying ground-strafing by the , with resultant heavy losses of aircraft and aircrews, and the pros and cons have been hotly debated almost annually ever since.

Prior to the advent of the A-10A, a host of aircraft had been utilized in the Close Air Support (CAS) role, mainly fighters made over as dive-bombers (RAF, and others) or dive-bombers (Luftwaffe, US Marine Corps), but down the decades various attempts have been made to produce one-job aircraft specifically for the job: the British Sopwith Salamander and German Junkers J1 and CLI which dated from the First World War; the Soviet Il-2 and Il-10 Shturmovik and Luftwaffe Herschel HS 129 of the Second World War, but the Thunderbolt II was the first serious American attempt to produce such an aircraft. Her story is therefore a unique and special one.

The author would particularly wish to thank the following for their unstinting aid, advice and help in compiling the chequered history of the Warthog and acknowledge his deep debt to their contributions to this continuing story:

George C. Leavy, who was on the A-10A program from the very beginning and who is still currently Senior Manager on the A-10 Engineering Program at Northrop Grumman, Bethpage, New York; Lynn V. McDonald, Cradle of Aviation Museum, Garden City, New York; Commander Stephen J. Riordan IV. USN (Ret.) and Dr Ellen Bicknell, Aviation Archives, Bethesda, Maryland; Linda Delatorre, DVIC/JCWS, March AFB, California; Kirsten Tedesco, Deputy Director/Curator of Collections, Pima Air & Space Museum, Tucson, Arizona; Gene Jillson, Johnson Controls, Inc., March ARB, California; Kevin Kelly, Tucson, Arizona; Gina McAllister, VP Corporate Communications, San Antonio, Texas; Simon Watson, Aviation Bookshop, London for the special A-10A Nose-Art photos and others; Hugh V. Morgan, Beavercreek, Ohio; Master Sergeant Michael S. Condrack, Idaho Air National Guard, Gowen Field, Boise, Idaho; Russell Sneddon, Curator, Armament Museum, Eglin AFB, Florida; Michael P. Speciale, Executive Director, New England Air Museum, Windsor Locks, Connecticut; John Panoiski, Empire State Aerosciences Museum, Scotia, New York; Martin Bowman, Norwich; William Dooner, Curator, McClellan Aviation Museum, California; Archie DiFante, Archives Branch, Department of the Air Force, Maxwell AFB, Alabama; ), for permission to quote from Pierre Sprey Interview of 18 December 2017; Ian Powell for permission to use his photograph of the N-A/W two-seat Hog; Boris Tolkachev for wonderful enthusiasm and assistance at the GetArchiv LLC, Lewes, Delaware; Christian Amado for kind permission to use his photographs; Len Mozey for kind permission to use his photographs; Leah Garcon, Chief, Media Operations, Air Combat Command, USAF for great help with official USAF photographs; Howard Altman and all the ever kind and helpful staff of the Reference Library at Bedford Central Library for their unfailing help in tracking down obscure documents for me.