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I said it Before

Paint every unit EXCEPT THE 23RD'S, They EARNED THEIR TEETH in Combat

Every other A-10 Should have the Barksdale \"WARTHOG\" paint Job on its nose for its Nose Art.

Why? Everyone Calls the A-10 THUNDERBOLT II the \"WARTHOG\"

20 years AGO The A-10 Proved She liked it on the Deck, Could Take an ASS BEATING AND BRING HER PILOT HOME SAFELY. Then could be repaired and Back in the AIR in a Few Hours or Days. 80-0186 Pat's Crew Proved that.
Yes we lost some pilots. Us in the 76th had a Jet Shot Down and a POW, and 2 come on there belly , 186 Shot to Hell. But all our Pilots Came Home Thanks to their Skills but alot to the A-10, No other Jet would of taken that kind of Damage and still made it back.

So Just like a Warthog , You can Shoot one of them Damn things several times, but unless you hit them just right, They'll still charge you Head on and Try and Kill you.

So paint the Warthog face on them all like Barksdale, and then do something on the Tail Flash or stab or even Back Bone.

But the \"Old Girl\" has earned her Cred in Combat , so lets give her the Respect she deserves.

Just my Thoughts.
20 years Ago we had the Biggest Fleet of A-10's Gathered and the Biggest Gaggle of Squadrons and Active,Reserve,Nation Guard everyone working together from Statesside and USAFE in one place at one time , Never to be seen again.

If it wasn't for that, The A-10 would be in the Boneyard now or in Army hands. I was lucky enough to be the DCC of one of those A-10's .

Goose

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\"Live Free Or Die\"

Goose, I could deal with all the A-10s having the Barksdale nose art but, I don't see it happening and I don't think Barksdale would like it very much either.

I understand Boise wanting some art of their own because look at the units that have it...23rd Flying Tigers, Barksdale \"warthog\", Fort Smith \"Razorbacks\", and now the Indiana \"blacksnakes\". Don't blame them for feeling a little left-out.

Like it or not the units with the nose art get more \"press\" because... frankly...they look cooler then a \"vanilla\" A-10. No this is not NASCAR but, nose art is a tradition dating back to the first aircraft that went into battle.

Well said Goose.......without Saddams little vacation to Kuwait, the Hog would be a distant memory with former pilots, crew dawgs and airshow crowds saying "I remember the A-10 when it was in service, bet it would have kicked ass in a war"

(In the UK though, a decent war record counts for nothing.........look at the Harrier GR9)

I look at pics from The First Sand box,
You don't see alot of \"Teeth\", in books either, few Teeth. We were only 1 Wing or 2 Squardons out of A-10;s , Hell too many others were there

But Barksdales Warthog Face, is the Prefect Fit for the A-10.. The 23rd is a Story by itself with its \"Teeth\".

I just think unless the Nose Art is a WW 2 throw back, (Is the Skull Bangers from WW2)? Did they Wear the Skulls on the P-40's you see from WW2?
Then thats a Whole Differant Story
Its not whats on the Nose that makes the Unit stand out, its their Record.
The Beachs were Gumby's, and They Stood out along with the Cajuns and the UK .

It was just an Idea,

Your Right BB, The A-10 would of been a \"Would Of, Could of , Only If? The Commies crossed the line\" The A-10 Would of They said could of Taken out a T-72 Tank with its GUN in 1 pass\"

But We went to the Sandbox instead.

People Forget that, Plus they did it without all those Gizmo's.

That's hard to believe 20 years already.
Goose

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\"Live Free Or Die\"

Well said, Goose.

The whole basis of the AF force presentation is based on modularity. Plug and play. You get an A-10 squadron, you get pretty much the same thing whether it's from Spang or D-M or Boise or Ft Wayne.

But...you start painting them different, soon they start acting different. Then you start getting \"no, we're from Moody, we don't do it that way.\"

One of the values of having a standard configuration is that you can easily rainbow units. I know it's only paint, but that's just the first step...\"I'm not flying a Baltimore jet if there is a Battle Creek one available.\"

Next, it will be LARSv12, or SADL versions...Guard vs Reserves vs active duty on systems and funding. All Hogs should be standard. (except the Flying Tigers, because of their legacy)

This has been a pet peeve of mine for 20 years...

Coach

I like how you explained it Goose , I have some pics of all those A-10s lined up on the taxie way from the first trip to the big sandbox and if you put them together its mind blowing just how many there was in one place at one time . I got a few others from over there , when I get them loaded on the web I'll let you now.

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Every day is a holliday when you love your job.

I like how you explained it Goose , I have some pics of all those A-10s lined up on the taxie way from the first trip to the big sandbox and if you put them together its mind blowing just how many there was in one place at noe time . I got a few others from over there , when I get them loaded on the web I'll let you now.

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Every day is a holliday when you love your job.

Too late.
And as for a rainbow unit, it doesn't work. Not in the sense they are shoving down out throats at Moody, with a Reserve Unit mixed with Active Duty. We (the 75th) are pretty small right now b/c of the deployment, but we are flying jets, ok. Well guess how many people were on day shift yesterday..... one. It's all reservists and one AD guy. Well all the reservists bailed to go to a briefing and guess who gets boned? AD. And it's not like anyone in charge can tell them what to do- When there's a conflict they go running to the Reservist supervision and it gets schwacked. There is only one reservist who doesn't act like it here, if you're reading this you know who you are. </rant>

I'm not going to get into a reserve VS active duty arguement. They are dumb right now trying to have the 75th fly while most of the Reservists that are there monday thru friday are having to get classes/briefings done before they deploy. Plus you have the support issue, very limited in the 75th and the 74th is starting to pack up. Logisticly it's a nightmare but until someone tells Ops No nothing about the flying schedule will change.

I was down there last week and we (the reservists) had 4 out of the 5 flyers. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining because I want to work when I'm down there. I actually enjoy working the line. I even volunteered to stay down an extra week or two to help out because they already knew with the classes they wouldn't have enough people and because of funding issues (they canceled all RPA fill actions and annual tour funds except for those deploying) I was told I couldn't.

In all honesty I think the full time reserve guys (at least crew chiefs on the line) there at the moment are much better than when I did my annual tour last year. A year ago there was only one that I saw do anything to help out the active duty folks, last week there was only one reservest who seemed to dissapear when everyone one else was out on the line trying to get the jets up.

I do agree that the blended units don't work. Active Duty looks out for themselves and so do the reservists. They tried it up here with the JSTARS (national guard/active duty) and after 4 or 5 years just split them up. I think one of two things will eventually happen at Moody. Either the reserve until will go away or they will split the squadrons.

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30mm Jr would agree with you on this from a Guard/AD perspective. They're running into it at the IL ARW. However, some of the AD CCs are seeing the light and accepting the Guard methodology...because it works!

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\"Those who hammer their guns into plows
will plow for those who do not.\"
- Thomas Jefferson

Ok, I don't get this \"AD/RES/Guard\" Rainbow units not wanting to work together, or blending together or whats going on here?

Alot must of Changed since 90-91?

Ok when the Reserve /Guard units Finally showed starting on Christmas Eve, and \"They were Belly Aching about \"Why couldn't we stay until after the first of the Year so we could spend time with our Families?'

Then when their Jets came in We recovered them so they could \"Rest and get use to the Place\"
Then we found out How much they were making with the \"Insurance deal\"
Because we had our pay Docked for Food Allowances etc.. , We were actually Paying to Be there.

But Really after we finished Our Belly Aching about them, and started working around them, They started working with us trying to Learn how \"ICT's and HOT PIT's will work during the \"Real World\" , They showed us How much they knew about the A-10 and Years on the Hog.

When the War broke out, everyone just \"Meshed\", with the 76th,74th,Cajuns and NAIL FAC all on our end \"South Hammer Head\", then on the North end the Beach had to Deal with USAFE units plus.

Everyone worked together, didn't matter if it had Teeth, Gumby,NF or NO tail code At the FOL 's they were mixed.

Our Super Truck had 2 in it, JJ and the \"Chief\", SMSGT Jasper was ours and the \"Chief\" was from the Cajuns. They worked together, You could ask the \"Chief for Support\" if \"JJ\" was tied up with AGS Supervision
He would take care of us too, If the Chief was Busy, JJ took care of the Cajuns.

Then at night we had to \"Hot Pit Moody and Shaw \" Lawn Darts\" going \"Down Town\" and on the way back.

The best training anyone can get, is pack your bags, grab a \"Box nasty\" take a \"Long flight\" read a book (Oh E-Readers now, Laptops, DVD PLayers, MP3 Players) Relax, when you hit the Ground, If they havent yet or before, Watch the ones that have.

You get to go. It might sound Funny, But I'd Love to beable to Go over and Do it again!

I just don't get it?

Goose

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\"Live Free Or Die\"