HAWG - Exploits of an A-10 Fighter Squadron in Afghanistan

yeah, that was the other one, hey, we got R, we got casing, yeah, it starts off as something you've trained your whole life trying to make a difference. The good thing is as an ATM pilot in times when the stars align and you are on that mission where you can make a difference, you can see the reward that is my whole soul and be that guy on the ground, you know it could be a 18 year old boy, an 18 year old boy. with a rifle and that's all he has and I'm here to protect him. Here, log out, just log back in.

Tonight and the first time I saw an A10 was when I was in Army basic training, at Fort Leonardwood, so I thought. I grew up around general aviation and knew a lot about civil aircraft. I had actually never heard of an A10 until I was doing marches during basic training. How I got interested in the A10. I can still remember it to this day. I was in a hobby store because I like a lot of kids interested in aviation. I built a lot of model airplanes and this was in 1979. I was in high school and I went to the hobby store and they had a model of a. delight model of the then new A10 uh it had only been operational for a couple of years at that point and I just saw it and I remember I can still remember to this day looking at the wall of models and trying to choose what I was going to build next below and saw this, the box and the picture, I thought what the heck is that and obviously it's a pretty unique plane.

I mean, we don't think about it too much now, uh, but, back. So I mean it was totally unique with the two engines mounted high up and a big gun sticking out of the nose and it was just a unique airplane. I saw what the hell this thing is that was initially used as anti-armor, uh. platform and that's why some people call him the Tank Killer because in that phase of his life, that was his main job, I was a first lieutenant, I was 26 years old, when Desert Storm started the game 26 years old. The

fighter

pilot caught the nation's attention a few months ago when he and a partner shot down a record number of Rocki tanks that you never forget when you look down and realize someone is trying to shoot you down and you have to kill them. him first, today we are very proud that United States Air Force pilot, First Lieutenant John Mar of Oakland Park Kansas, performs the ceremony first.

It doesn't seem like that long ago to me, but I know I talked to a lot of the Guys, now you know they are, it's been quite a while and when you look at the plane from then until now, it's pretty amazing the different upgrades and, uh, we've been through since then, the A10 is the only airframe. All of that was built entirely for this Mission, its only purpose in life is close air support, come on man, they're about to fire, you need to get down, come on buddy, come on man, EG T saves the day again, baby, some people say. is the Tank Killer, but that's not actually true.

This aircraft was designed as a close air support aircraft. The whole concept came from the lack of capacity of some air frames in Vietnam and they said, "Hey, let's do it." Let's learn from this war and build an aircraft that is perfect for close air support. It is an incredible testament to the aircraft. I think the same weapon that we used to kill the main battle tanks in 1991 is the same weapon that uh. We can shoot a single insurgent fleeing on a motorcycle or shoot our guys from a tree line. People sit there and try to make a weak weakness of the A10, so they try to designate the weakness of the A10 as it is a singular mission focus.

I think that's our biggest strength and I wish we promoted it so we care about the guys on the field. We make our mission in relation to the guys on the ground. We are essentially a support element. for the Army, we are the redheaded stepchild of the Air Force, that's where we are, but that experience in close air support when the A10 is eliminated or if it is eliminated and you get all these multiple When shooting pilots, you lose that experience because it is not the number one in Air Force targets, it's not number one in Army targets, the only way it's number one is in A10 targets, that's where it's number one, um, and it's not a political statement, it's really It's not that we care more about the guy on the ground, um, I'm not saying that Aon Mission addiction doesn't care about the guy on the ground, but it's not tangible, you can't really take advantage of its benefits at that time.

We will wait a certain amount of time to see its air to air effect. What's up with the guy on the ground? Well, you're billing right superiority or supremacy, but will the guy on the ground see how he gets the tangible benefits? Of this, no close air support is about the ground type and we are all in this onam, we work extensively with joint tactical air controllers, special operations forces, uh, from all branches of the military, not just the Air Force, training extensive on the state side, um. that allows us to learn their lingo learn the situation on the ground that they face on the ground um so uh on the other hand, on the other hand, they can understand how we operate, they can see our sensors, they can see how we employ weapons sensors.

They're great, they're amazing. They allow precision attacks. They allow us to generate flawless coordinates that are right on target, but will never replace. You know, looking right outside my cabin and watching the battle. space, what am I seeing in your big picture? Because many sensors have a soda straw view of the battle space that yes, I can see here in this 20 M area, but I can't see what's at 35 M and maybe 35 M. some additional friendly forces that the jtac I'm talking to, who met 100 east of that target, doesn't know it's there, we have this personal connection with the people we work so closely with, we work with the guy on the ground, uh we heard him get scared request immediate response same comment the same restrictions of the last accesses North 75 M uh we hear him get excited here we go that's good hits Good hits good hit Das to I need you in the same comments same restrictions we hear the bullets flying we hear him take cover lo we hear heavy breathing uh and it becomes a very personal mission uh very personal uh especially when you start hearing about guys suffering casualties uh down there you take that that hits very, very close to home, nobody wants to hear that.

Well, today we are going to S sufla. We've been there recently, so we have a good lay of the land. Keep in mind that Espi has been quite hot recently and they have had. some contact from the same area around sandai sou uh, went over the recent activity, note the kind of uh we've had recently out of there, they have SE and the Taliban commander looks at the target first and does a quick meeting. collecting weapons on the road there are usually motorcycles involved, you also have the Taliban commander who SE a couple of weeks ago, so you have all those things happening right there, in a spondi, let's go straight to the heat. of that, so keep that in mind as we go down, keep your eyes open and stay alert for our actions in contact near and far Ambush return fire look at me, any of the maneuvers will go through the IED and get 360°. security and clear the danger area and then we will look at kavac uh in the case of a complex attack we will return fire leave the kill zone indirect fire lower look for a distance and direction from me our actions in Stop, kneel face up and , uh, the gait intervals that we're going to use will depend on where we are, in the open area, spread out as much as you can, the bigger we can see and the more intimidated we can.

Look, we're less likely to make contact the further we go there, that's all I have, what are your questions? Well, we're kidding 0615 0615 KS, so yesterday, since most days we go out disassembled. We patrolled south of our remote to a village in Spain, basically we got some information that some bad guys were storing weapons in a building and we had contacted them before running into them before, however our biometric assets didn't . We had the complete file on the people we had detained, so we had to let them go, we crossed, we reached the city that we pushed, we settled in front of a fabric that we knew had a PR previously.

There was a Taliban commander living in the Afghan National Police who was there with us and they went in and searched the house, they took the four guys they brought out of the house, we interrogated them tactically as if it were a space, as if they were all separated from each other , so they didn't, they couldn't be talking while we were questioning them, he said everyone here is a teacher, so we are good people, okay, good people, you have nothing to worry about. We are not boys, only their stories did it. Unfortunately we didn't match, we couldn't stop them, we signed them up for the search before leaving town.

We were receiving reports. Intel reports that the Taliban were massing forces, which I mean, it's a common report, you know, but it's one. one of those things that you know, unless we've confirmed the visual, we can't really do much, so we just had to continue, going back to base, just taking out, I think we have R, we showed ourselves, yeah, but as we were heading back to base we had to cross about 2km of open desert, we got to about 500M outside the town and started shooting pretty accurately 600. We are definitely in a huge open danger area and there was no cover, I mean, over there.

There were people trying to find tire tracks to hide in and get a little bit of a gorge, behind what tree line, oh where to go for that line of trees over there, hey, what tree line, okay, wait, You know, in that position, the best thing you can do is spread out, gain fire superiority, you know, and then wait for some air support. Our communications were a problem at the time so they had a bit of a fight but luckily they had A10s which were pushed towards us. have your position south of the tree line, fortunately the enemy broke contact first, after some effective firing from our platoon, and we started to get busy, but I need full security, brother who is shooting, someone is shooting at us, still We are receiving harassment fire.

At that point, but fortunately we had the A10s on station to come and put on a good show of force which is always a squeeze for the enemy because they know what that entails again with the ground troops that I work with. with uh, when they think close to our support, they think about a10s uh, if you tell them something else, you can always listen to it like I don't care, like telling me when the a10s are on the station and I think the reason for that is uh, They almost share the same mentality um, if you said there was a growl in the sky, it would be a pig pilot.

I'm your jtech joint terminal attack controller. uh what I do is advise you on the capabilities of air assets and help you with those. air assets, as well as controlling them if we need to go kinetic and get some ordinances from the sky to place bombs on the target without having the A10 nearby and its future in such an uncertain state, is a shame to me. To me, if the Air Force wants to get rid of the A10, are they saying there will be no more ground wars? To win a war you need boots on the ground and to have boots on the ground you need support and you need the right kind of support to have boots on the ground and it's the A10, honestly, even sometimes just a sound or just telling the commander on the ground, hey, the A10 is on the way or we have support planes, we hear five microphones, he asks what it is, you say, hey, we.

An A10 comes up, it's, it's, yes, it lifts it up a little bit, that sound is so distinguishable. Good effect, literally shakes the ground. Is incredible. At first you hear him shooting and then you hear an echo of the gun. in heaven that sound right there drives 11 braavos crazy it's amazing just wo for a while hey thank you sir just my pants H yeah we it's that sound of uh uh cheesy like freedom but it really is it's just the sound. of don't mess with me, scares everyone and shows you that you're in good hands because I've been in the Air Force since you know, commissioning right after 9/11, you know, and never having known anything other than this theater of combat. here.

In Afghanistan, I know that when you talk to a 19-35 year old man on the end of a radio who is scared and just needs help at that moment, he doesn't care about the fiscal constraints, he doesn't care about the bigger picture. Air Force Policy. He doesn't care about the next sophisticated weapons system that's coming. He cares about being saved right then and there. Work is important. psychology a little off uh, I have no problem killing people and boiling things because when I hear that JTAG gets scared, uh, if I had to kill a lot of people it's because that guyHe was trying to kill my brother and my arms. on the ground, that's what I was born and raised in the Air Force for.

It's amazing to be in this job to be able to know, through interactions with jtx, that my work matters to people. I'm very lucky to be like that. I think there are very few jobs in the world that have so much real feedback from people to say. I appreciate what you do. It does, uh, it's very humiliating, it's just that the ground forces trust us so much and we like them. I think that's something that I'm very, very proud that they love this plane and trust us, that's the most important thing I'm talking about when you're filming last night, we just looked at it, it was about 65 to 100 meters away from the friendly guys. and for those guys to trust us, to do that on a regular basis, is very rewarding.

I am convinced that when the history books are written about my generation of aviators, there will be no doubt that the A10 will be a key point of what airpower has provided in the world and in the global battlespace, the evidence speaks alone of what the airplane has done, so there is no denying what the airplane is capable of doing and what it has done for almost 15 years. Years in a row you have a large group of experts at what they do with a singular focus and you can't really get that back once it's revealed.