A-10 wall of fame

This is where you can find stories, and some of the history behind, the most famous of the A-10 fleet. The A-10 is now 30 years old as an airframe so there are a lot more stories out three but, these are the ones I have built pages for so far.

(Click on the aircraft tail number to read it's story)

Air-to-air kills

The A-10 achieved two air-to-air kills during Operation Desert Storm, both with the GAU-8A 30mm Avenger cannon. The first was on 6 February 1991 in aircraft 77-0205 flown, by Capt. Bob Swain. Capt Swain was assigned to the 706th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 926th Tactical Fighter Group "Cajuns" out of New Orleans Louisiana.

The second air-to-air kill was archived by Capt Todd "Shanghai" Sheehy in aircraft 81-0964 while flying with the 511th TFS "vultures" out of Myrtle Beach SC.

Evil Numbers?

Some numbers are in themselves ominous and have bad "Mojo" attached to them. The number 13 is one such number and of course the number 666 is another. There were two A-10's built with the last three digits 666, 73-0666 and 77-0666. 73-0666 was one of the six DT&E aircraft used to finish the testing and certification of the A-10 during the mid to late 70's. It later was redisinated as an A-10A and severed it's country fatefully until it's retirement. It's now on display at the Hill AFB museum and sill serves educateing the public on the A-10, it's history, and mission. 77-0666 is another story indeed.....

Battle Damaged A-10's

There have been a number of A-10 swhich took heavy battle damage but, because of the rugged design of the Warthog, was able to bring the pilot home safe. Some were repaired and returned to duty while others were "scrapped", or used for other purposes such as parts, or recertification of the A-10 fleet. For stories of battle damaged during Operation Desert Storm go to Pats World dot com. Pat was on the Aircraft Battle Damage Repair team during DS and has a very nice section on his website dedicated to the A-10.

Aircraft 81-0987 was damaged by a SAM and AAA fire during Operation Iraqi Freedom but was able to bring it's pilot, KC (Killer Chick) Campbell safely home. The aircraft was not repaired (that's a story within itself) but instead was used to re-certify the A-10 fleet to operate another 20+ years.

Aircraft 81-0967 was hit by a SAM in the #2 engine over Kosovo in 1999. It received extenave damage but, was repaired within a couple of weeks and returned to it's unit to fly more sorties during Operation Allied Force. The aircraft could have been fixed a lot quicker but the repaires was hendered by the fact it landed at a remote airport. All parts equipment, and personal had to be airlifted in to fix the jet.

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