McCain promises to rescue the Warthog from extinction
The Military Times reports that John McCain promised to save the A-10 Thunderbolt from being retired by the Air Force;
McCain said Thursday the A-10 is the best close-air support aircraft ever made and there is “no doubt” Congress will prevent its retirement. Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson has 80 of the twin-jet planes and trains A-10 pilots.
McCain says there’s no replacement for the jet’s close-air support mission and pointed to a June friendly fire in Afghanistan where a B-1 bomber mistakenly targeted American troops, killing five.
Military.com speculates that McCain may end up being the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee in the next Congress;
He’s taken outspoken stances on many of the recent defense issues that have dominated the military to include the number of U.S. troops in Iraq, supporting rebels in Syria and holding the defense industry accountable for failures on big ticket weapons programs.
McCain was one of the first lawmakers to urge President Obama to start arming Syrian rebels from the outset of the civil war. In fact, he snuck into Syria last year to meet with Syrian rebel leaders.
If he’s successful saving the A-10, he’ll have done more for infantrymen than he’s ever done.
Category: Military issues
The A-10 is perfect for ripping up ISIS.
Yet another headscratcher from our DoD and the administration.
I’ll just leave this here.
http://sd.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/i/keep-calm-and-brrrt-on-2.png
I’ve found my new lock screen.
I’m of a mixed mind on this one.
On the one hand, I absolutely hate seeing Congress meddling directly in military equipment procurement and/or phase-out decisions.
On the other hand, IMO the USAF has it’s head firmly up it’s proverbial 4th point of contact if they think the JSF will be even 20% as effective as the A-10 in the CAS role. Retiring the A-10 without an acceptable replacement is just plain stupid.
I look at the Warthog as I do the B-52: each has a specific role for which it is uniquely qualified and is the best weapons platform for that mission. Almost seventy years after the Buffs were introduced they are still the best plane for saturation bombing in the arsenal as well as being stand off platforms for nuclear cruise missile launches.
The A-10 has been, since the early seventies and into the foreseeable future the absolutely best CAS platform in the arsenal so why the burr up the Zoomies’ asses to dump it?
Money, purely and simply, money that it wants for more glamorous fast-burners. That’s why they won’t turn the Hogs and the CAS role over to the Army because a large chunk of their budget would go with them.
It’s a damned turf and budget battle and they could give a rat’s ass how it negatively impacts the ground-pounders. I’m with McLame on this one although the man usually drives me nuts.
As a retired zoomie, I completely agree. USAF has it’s head up its 4th contact on the A-10.
McCain and company are fucking traitors. They should be sitting in GITMO right now for their actions in Syria arming terrorists.
exactly
Welllll …. seeing’s how he’s already spent five-and-a-half years at the Hanoi Hilton and suffered severe torture, I think I’ll let him slide.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. It would be nice if we could into the future, but unfortunately we can’t. As with elections we sometimes have to choose between the lesser of two evils.
How about if we switch our thinking on both foreign policy matters and domestic elections from the previous comment,or derivations there of, and start thinking that sometimes the enemy of my enemy is ALSO my enemy.
Exactly, Mark Steyn said it best over 10 years ago when he said that we need to change from this “pragmatic” view of foreign policy that is summed up in the phrase: “He may be a son of a bitch, but he’s OUR son of a bitch” and focus on the “son of a bitch” part. Applied to the Syria situation, either let that shit burn down and enjoy seeing Assad beheaded on the internet or kill EVERYONE involved be they ISIS, the Syrian Army, the Iraqi Army, the “moderate” rebels or anyone else who wants a piece. Either way, no giving weapons to any of these anti-Assad groups (well, maybe the Kurds). Oh, and let THEM figure it out after we level the place. No more trying to rebuild their shithole countries. Lather, rinse, repeat. Enough explosives and enough brutality will beat the fight out of anyone. Remember, Japan was the terror of Asia for hundreds of years and the various parts of what became Germany caused trouble in Europe for even longer. 4 years of war with us and have you heard a peep out of them since?
No fuck that nonsense. You don’t get a free pass while actively arming our enemies. The bullshit reason is why he’s in there being a rino and getting away with this shit. The mother fucker is literally getting al qeuda and other Islamists arms to use against us.
This ticks me off. I’ve had enough of it. I really have. I’m not sure I can take much more of it. In point of fact, I’m considering invoking the spirit of Sister Mary Ernestine and turning her on the Military.com writer. If I heard it from her once, I heard it a million times: The past tense of sneak is sneaked, not snuck!
I thought it was supposed to be “snuckted”.
Sister Ernestine: “Jonn, come up here. Stand up straight. Put your hands out. Turn them over. Knuckles up. You may close your eyes if you wish.”
Whomp! Whomp! Whomp! Whomp!
Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my GOD! Flashback, flashback, flashback!
Gosh darn it, TAH! Why no TRIGGER WARNING for all us “good” Catholic kids!
“You say your suffering recurring nightmares and are exceedingly anxious?”
“Yes.”
“Were you in the military?”
“Yes, but that has nothing to do with it. I had Sr. Mary Ernestine for English when I was in 5th grade.”
“Oh my. Anything else?”
“Yes. I had Sr. Mary Xavier in 8th. She named her ruler! It had a name!”
“Does your service
Let me tell you about fear. Try working in a Catholic hospital that was still run by the “white sisters”! I watched one back a surgeon right back into the operating room he came out of, with her index finger planted firmly in the middle of his chest…
Almost 6 years working for the Sisters of Mercy…. amen to that.
Man… The Sisters of Mercy is one of my favorite bands.
You lucky bastard! 🙂
I’m trying to picture Sister Mary Marthalene playing bass….
He’s luck he wasn’t dragged back by his ear! I know that in a scholastic contest, the Dominican would beat the Sisters of Mercy but I always wondered what result in a ruler and pointer fight between the two. Tough women.
No such thing as, “good Catholic kids.”
God knows I wasn’t.
And while I hope he does save the Hogs, I’m not holding my breath.
3 months in a German Catholic grade school while in temporary quarters off post (barracks in Germany) waiting for something to open up on post.
I spoke German but didn’t let on. One day one of the nuns caught me having a conversation with a couple of the other kids … in German.
WHOMP! WHOMP! WHOMP! WHOMP!
I was nine. I still have nightmares LOL
I went back to that town a few years ago while I was working in the UK. Sadly the town is all grown up and modern (except for a small portion of pre-WWII buildings downtown.) Almost everything I remembered was gone.
And if someone snuck up on you, you’ve been snuckered.
nah, that’s a pool game.
Umm…. I think that would be “snookered”, but I’m willing to be corrected.
If folks would just suspend all this sneakin’ around stuff then no one ever need to know the past tense of it. Although, I might postulate that once a sneak, always a sneak, therefore there is no such thing as being a past tense sneakeroodledoodler.
2/17 AC, I feel your pain. Mom was a journalist and Aunt was a librarian. I had zero chance. To dangle a participle or miss-tense a verb was a very painful experience, not to be repeated.
Bunch of wimps, scared of penguins.
My friends and I actually made a nun cry!
But that’s what they get for sending a rookied to a class of 7th grade boys. After that it was Sister Michael and the 18″ ruler with the metal strip. Through the foggy haze of nostalgia, I believe she broke several on Robert Amigliore over the course of a year
“If he’s successful saving the A-10, he’ll have done more for infantrymen than he’s ever done.” After he’s done with this one thing, he can go home.
I agree with this. Nothing is more important than supporting infantry up close and killing the enemy up close!
McCain and his brothers know something about the comfort of the rummble and or roar of air cover above.
And I am sure more contemporary BOTG as well …
Good for him for picking this fight. Although I have never fought under the blanket of protection that this airframe and its pilots provide, I can say as a SEN MIL DOG, from what I have seen and heard this platform needs to stay after a complete and well deserved modernization program!
Carry on!
My only experience with the Warthog happened while bird hunting in Eastern Washington. They came down past us between the foothills on their way to the bombing range. I’m going to guess they were operating from Widby island. Impressive!
We had a couple of them practice gun runs on us down in Southwest Texas. We were filming a documentary about the Alamo called “Alamo, the Price of Freedom”. I suspect that seeing the columns of Mexican infantry and their artillery banging away at the Alamo was a bit much for those boys and they decided to get involved.
The Texicans on the ramparts were certainly hooting and hollering and waving their hats at them when they went overhead. 🙂
This was down to the set where John Wayne filmed his Alamo movie in the 60’s.
Oh, and over the following week, word must have gotten out because twice were were buzzed by B-52’s and once by a B-1. I believe they were all down to Lackland AFB for whatever reasons.
Senator McCain SAYS he’ll rescue the A-10 from oblivion, all I can say is:
DEEDS, NOT WORDS.
To witness first hand what these aircraft can do is awe inspiring.
Try to imagine an insurgent in a mud/cinder block dwelling, now try to imagine how fast that dwelling went up in a puff of thick dust after receiving a burst of fire from said A10’s 30mm main gun.
The A-10 is the only fixed-wing aircraft I ever had fly UNDER my OH-58C at a hover.
The pilot looked UP at me and waved.
I don’t know how those guys wedge their balls into that cockpit.
There are some hammer females flying them.
There was a picture during one of the Gulf wars of a Hog that had been shot up so bad that you could see through it yet it came back safe.
My nephew has been under the protection of the Warthogs during a recent deployment. He was awed the first time they laid fire on a group of Taliban that was engaging his Rangers. He said that yes, the sound is distinctive but the the hammering it gives your body feels like you are driving with all four wheels on the rumble strip. He was that close. He said it was all he could do to keep his troops from standing up and cheering them on.
I’ve been told similar stories by some friends after they returned from deployments.
Closest that I ever got to them (other than an airshow as a kid) was Desert Storm. Saw several flights of them literally flying NW to SE and back again along the the Saudi-Iraq border. They would fly in groups of two, with another two about 3-4 miles behind. They were somewhere between (estimated) 3,000 and 5,000 feet up. You could still make out that distinctive shape though.
I believe the venerable Warthog uses the same engine as the Navy S3 Viking. Looks like the Viking might possibly make a comeback as well (?).
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/89m-for-fy-2007-support-of-the-usns-s3b-vikings-02777/
How about McCain make saving the A-10 just a part of the larger savior that’s needed.
Give the budget back to the DoD, end sequestration, stop the massive personnel cuts for any and every reason they can think of.
I’m glad that John McCain is working to save my co-plaintiff in the SOCNET lawsuit, Shari Nicoletti. I love my little warthog. Her looks may be the reason that doggie style was invented.
Of course, I especially like that she’s willing to put her clearance with a major defense contractor at risk by lettiong me host foreign national intelligence officials at our home.
http://thetruthaboutsocnetlies.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/why-john-giduck-archangel-group-and-russian-intelligence-make-good-bedfellows/
There can’t be any danger in that, right? Ignore the fact that I mainstain friendships with people that two major newspaper say bombed a US Embassy
https://thetruthaboutsocnetlies.wordpress.com/2012/05/19/john-giducks-ties-to-a-group-that-may-have-bombed-a-us-embassy/
sincerely
John “Faker 6” Giduck