![]() We congratulated ourselves for a great day’s work.īefore we knew it, we were ordered back to our jets to fly near Kuwait City. Once we were out of ammo, we flew to a forward operating location where our aircraft were rearmed and refueled. We used steep dive angles and close-range passes to get good hits with the Gatling gun, which back then tended to move around during a burst. We had to correct for all sorts of factors-dive angle, airspeed, sight depression-using “Kentucky windage,” or eyeball targeting. Being a good shot still mattered in 1991. The design is expected to remain in use until the late 2030s. Three decades after Desert Storm gave the close-air-support classic its combat debut, approximately 280 Warthogs remain in service with the Air Force. ![]() For that reason, the A-10 has been upgraded in the decades since with a computed sight. The high rate of fire and typical range mean the rounds hit just before or about the time you release the trigger. ![]() The sound is muffled with all the gear we wear, but you still hear it. You could smell the spent casings even with the oxygen mask on. The thing shook the airplane when you pulled the trigger. I used a grease pencil on the inside of my canopy to record any burning tanks, a sure sign of a “K”-for catastrophic kill.įish and I were both adept with the A-10’s seven-barrel 30mm Gatling gun. We quickly nailed six tanks, then started blasting away with our 30mm cannon and scored two more kills. Their hot engines glowed bright against the cool morning sand, making them easy pickings for our infrared-guided Maverick missiles. Most of the tanks had pulled off the road. Fish and I arrived just as the sun was coming up. Our first mission took us to the corner where Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Kuwait meet to intercept a tank convoy a night flight had spotted. I was a first lieutenant then, flying as wingman for Captain Eric Solomonson, who went by the call sign “Fish.” Mine is “Karl.” I took off before dawn on February 25, 1991, the second day of the ground war. Air Force Captain Dale Storr, was shot down over Kuwait on February 2 only when he was released on March 6, after the war, did we learn he had survived. Six Warthogs were lost and two of their pilots killed. In Desert Storm, 39 fixed-wing aircraft and five helicopters were shot down by Iraqi air defenses. That the A-10 remains in service 29 years later is a testament to the platform’s reliability and effectiveness. By the time it ended, the Warthog would be credited with destroying more than 900 tanks, 2,000 military vehicles, and 1,200 artillery pieces. Operation Desert Storm was the first time the “Warthog” had flown in combat. It was difficult to pick out targets by sight, but we pressed in lower and closer, confident that our aircraft-the Fairchild Republic A-10A Thunderbolt II-could take a hit and still get us home. Smoke from oil-well fires lit by Iraqi forces and smoldering tanks filled the air with haze.
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