77-0205

Aircraft 77-0205, which scored the first ever A-10 air to air kill on 6 February 1991, during Operation Desert Storm. Captain Bob Swain downed an Iraqi Bo 105 C helicopter while flying with the 706th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 926th Tactical Fighter Group, New Orleans Louisiana, out of King Fahd Air Field Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia. The following story is taken from the Nov. 1997 issue of Combat Aircraft, written by Randy Jolly.

"My wingman and I were working a kill box in western Kuwait, just west of Ali Al Salem airfield. It was our third mission of the day, about 3:45 in the afternoon, and we had just rippled six Mk-82s (500-lb dumb bombs) on some building the Iraqi Army was using as a command post. The AAA (Anti Aircraft Artillery fire) had really picked up and we were tired. Coming off the bomb pass we spotted a tank moving down a nearby road- the Iraqis had learned by now not to move in convoys, so individual vehicles would make sprints between assembly areas. We backtracked from the moving tank and found two more, then another four. We both had two Mavericks. I took the eastern group and I had my wingman take the western group. I got both my missiles off -scratch two tanks- and then saw two black dots moving fast across the desert. They were moving way to fast to be tanks or trucks so I flipped over to the AWACS frequency to find out if any friendly choppers were in the area. AWACS said no friendlies were supposed to be in our area. I was padlocked on these guys by now and closed to visually ID them. About the time I positively ID'd them as hostile, they split. They had been flying line abreast, heading west-south-west, but now one turned toward the south, while the other turned to the north. I picked up the southern guy, called up my LIMA (AIM-9L Missile) and tried to get a tone but, the missile wouldn't track. The Hog had just recently had the AIM-9 added to its inventory and I really wanted to use it, but it just wouldn't lock. By now I was getting really steep, 60-70 degrees, and was starting to push the "floor"- our minimum altitude that keep us out of Iraqi small arms fire. As I pulled out of the dive I ran about 75 rounds across the choppers flightpath. It wasn't my best gunnery, the bullets stung out, instead of being concentrated, but I got a piece of him. A Forward Air Controller in an OV-10 Bronco that saw the engagement said that the Iraqi started flying very erratically. I pulled up, pirouetted and in another steep dive put 300 rounds into him. The helicopter exploded and tumbled into the desert. Without a lead computing sight the GAU-8 (30mm cannon) really helped out- the bullet drop is only one foot at a mile, so at the ranges I was shooting I was basically able to put him in the gun cross and pull the trigger.

The A-10 Captain Swain was flying was subsequently named Chopper Popper by it's proud Crew Chief.. Today, still displaying the "NO" tail code of it's New Orleans based Air Reserve Unit, Chopper Popper is on display at the Air Force Armament Museum, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.

The Chopper Popper moved from Eglin AFB to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Spring, Colorado in 2000.

The Chopper Popper at USAFA May 2002.

NOTE: The nose art depicts a crawfish holding a chopper in one claw. Of course the crawfish comes from the aircraft being based at New Orleans LA. during Desert Storm when it scored its victory.

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