How Two A-10 Pilots Saved A Group Of Marines Who Were Cornered And Under Siege By The Taliban

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
As the Marines egressed, the A-10s flew directly at them, shooting the 30mm rounds over their heads at the Taliban who were in close pursuit behind. As Cavazos said: “While they were in the building it was easier to shoot that close to them, 40 to 50 meters or so most of the time. But once on foot it was a little more hairy.

“With their strobe lights on, marking their positions, it allowed us to shoot closer to them. We got inside 25 meters numerous times with the gun as they ran, carrying their wounded. What they saw coming at them was an A-10 with every light on at a very low altitude, tracer fire reaching up towards it from the Taliban, and suddenly the nose would fire and the 30mm shells would be on their way, screaming over their heads. The sound and force of 60 hand grenades a second going off behind you followed by the sound of the gun had to be incredible. Afterwards, we had a chance to meet these Marines, and they told us that every time we fired that close to them it made them feel more and more like they were going to actually live.”

The experience of having so many 30mm rounds pass just over his head was not lost on the Marines’ Team Chief, nor the effect the weapon had on the pursuing Taliban. He wrote in his account, “It is hard to describe what it’s like to see 30mm rounds from an A-10 impact less than 50 meters from you. All I can say is the combination of the flash of the guns firing, the sound it makes and the way the ground shook around us gave me the first real indication that we were really going to make it back that night. Every time the A-10s made a pass it was like a rallying call for our entire section… With deadly accurate and danger close fire they ceased a pursing enemy determined to finish us off.”


How Two A-10 Pilots Saved A Group Of Marines Who Were Cornered And Under Siege By The Taliban




and yet the AF Brass wants to get rid of the A-10 even lying about statistics

from 2015

At What Point Does The USAF's War Against The A-10 Become Sabotage?
 

b23hqb

Well-Known Member
PREMO Member
I've been saying that for a long time. The Warthog is simply the best platform for the job, even real time today. If the AF doesn't want them, then turn them over to the Army or Marines, people that have their combat brethren in the fight. There are plenty of young guns in both branches that would love to learn and fly that platform and get into it for their comrades. Screw the AF and their insistence on trying to control all things fixed wing.
 
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GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
Screw the AF and their insistence on trying to control all things fixed wing.


as the article says, its not fast and sexy ....

to be blunt Saying I fly and A-10 doesn't get girls panties went like a fast burner .....


Politically it is one less 'reason' for the latest TOY
 

b23hqb

Well-Known Member
PREMO Member
as the article says, its not fast and sexy ....

to be blunt Saying I fly and A-10 doesn't get girls panties went like a fast burner .....


Politically it is one less 'reason' for the latest TOY

That's right, but it is the BEST platform ever developed for such missions, and until it is no longer effective for CAS, which will probably be never, then keep on keepin' on with it.
 

b23hqb

Well-Known Member
PREMO Member
Biased :lol: It's my favorite ground attack aircraft. For fighter aircraft I've always been partial to the F-15 Eagle.

A-10 is a close second to my favorite, the F-14 Tomcat. The sound the Tomcat makes as it literally ripped and shredded the air is unlike any other sound I have ever heard from a fighter aircraft.
 

BOP

Well-Known Member
I've been saying that for a long time. The Warthog is simply the best platform for the job, even real time today. If the AF doesn't want them, then turn them over to the Army or Marines, people that have their combat brethren in the fight. There are plenty of young guns in both branches that would love to learn and fly that platform and get into it for their comrades. Screw the AF and their insistence on trying to control all things fixed wing.

Don't give them to the Army; most of them will be broke af before too long. Give them to the Marine Corps and let the AF be the depot, at least for the engines.
 

stgislander

Well-Known Member
PREMO Member
A good friend was (he's since passed) a retired Marine Colonel (Intel) and a private pilot. He recalled a story of attending a party up in DC a few years back where he asked a retired Marine General friend why the USMC doesn't make a pitch to take some of the A-10s. He said his friend looked him square in the eye and growled that that subject will not be brought up in "polite" company. The gist of the conversation was that the USMC was "told from up on high" that they didn't want the A-10s. End of discussion.
 

b23hqb

Well-Known Member
PREMO Member
A good friend was (he's since passed) a retired Marine Colonel (Intel) and a private pilot. He recalled a story of attending a party up in DC a few years back where he asked a retired Marine General friend why the USMC doesn't make a pitch to take some of the A-10s. He said his friend looked him square in the eye and growled that that subject will not be brought up in "polite" company. The gist of the conversation was that the USMC was "told from up on high" that they didn't want the A-10s. End of discussion.

No doubt. In the military, if you're told by someone higher up that you don't want something, then you don't want something. Politics will kill us.
 
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