Kelly Green: What is your take on this?

[IronEagle]

http://www.airforcetimes.com/story/military/tech/2015/01/27/pogo-fire-post-treason-a10/22414693/

[Kelly Green]

Retire The A-10???!!!

Excuse me while I move my little model of a "Warthog" a bit closer to me.

A while back I was at a Civil War encampment just down the road from Bucknell University, where a reenactors group from State College had two Civil War artillery pieces including one that was on the line at The Battle of Gettysburg.

The "captain" was telling the crowd about them when two A-10's flew overhead, made a circle and headed east to Wilkes Barre where there was an air show that weekend. A reenactor who had been in the Air Force during Desert Storm, looked at me and said, "You know, those two planes have more firepower between them than all the guns that fired before Pickett's Charge."

Sure -- go ahead -- retire them. Who needs 'em?

[CbEagle]

About 20 years ago doing construction in lower bucks we could hardly get any work done we would just stand around and watch the A-10's fly in and out of willow grove. What a really cool sight, and also now one of the best daesh killer in the world.

[Raptor]

Haven't they been talking about this for long time...

http://www.airforcetimes.com/story/m...-a10/22414693/

..been hearing rumblings for years.

[Kelly Green]

They Talked About It Once Before

After the "Cold War" thawed they were going to kill the Hog because all of the Soviets' tanks were no longer a mega threat.

Then a little thing called Desert Storm came along -- ask the soldiers who would have had to face Sadam's tanks whether they were happy the Hog lived on.

Yeah, we no longer need Gattling Guns either but I think killing the Hog would be an incredibly stupid thing to do. They can go where the A1M1 can't.

[Eagle Road]

After the "Cold War" thawed they were going to kill the Hog because all of the Soviets' tanks were no longer a mega threat.

Then a little thing called Desert Storm came along -- ask the soldiers who would have had to face Sadam's tanks whether they were happy the Hog lived on.

Yeah, we no longer need Gattling Guns either but I think killing the Hog would be an incredibly stupid thing to do. They can go where the A1M1 can't.

KG, I think what bothers me more about the article is that we now, equip our military according to "popular opinion"?

[slag]

Don't see where you're getting that.

Seems more like a fight between military personnel who want to keep a cheaper, effective piece of equipment and the 700-dollar hammer crowd that wants to keep its budget.

[Eagle Road]

Don't see where you're getting that.

Seems more like a fight between military personnel who want to keep a cheaper, effective piece of equipment and the 700-dollar hammer crowd that wants to keep its budget.

Understand where you are coming from slag, and I don't have a problem with the "working man's opinion" (we rely on it here heavily) BUT at some point I would hope that some of the guys getting paid to make sure our Armed Forces have the right equipment (as in leaders) can make a good decision without the drama?

[slag]

Yeah, well unfortunately my understanding is that some the guys paid to make those decisions are people who are more interested in post-discharge defense contractor jobs than getting good equipment ... which they've never used and will never have to.

You're going to have to get them out of the mix before the drama goes away.

[Riccardo]

Eventually they retired the P51

http://www.airforcetimes.com/story/m...-a10/22414693/

Time marches on

[Eagle Road]

Yeah, well unfortunately my understanding is that some the guys paid to make those decisions are people who are more interested in post-discharge defense contractor jobs than getting good equipment ... which they've never used and will never have to.

You're going to have to get them out of the mix before the drama goes away.

Understandable, I believe it was Eisenhower that said, be careful of the IMC, and that was 60 years ago!