{"id":185419,"date":"2014-11-29T21:33:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-30T02:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2014\/11\/29\/and-the-plane-that-the-usaf-has-hated-since-its-introduction-is-deployed-to-iraq\/"},"modified":"2014-11-29T21:33:00","modified_gmt":"2014-11-30T02:33:00","slug":"and-the-plane-that-the-usaf-has-hated-since-its-introduction-is-deployed-to-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2014\/11\/29\/and-the-plane-that-the-usaf-has-hated-since-its-introduction-is-deployed-to-iraq\/","title":{"rendered":"And the Plane that the USAF has Hated Since Its Introduction is Deployed to Iraq"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Even as they are trying to kill it, <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/war-is-boring\/the-a-10-warthog-is-back-in-iraq-and-just-in-time-b0366b43750b?source=tw-f2fa06851be3-1417215013703\">the A-10 Warthog deployed for combat service in Iraq<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: blue;\">The low- and slow-flying A-10 Warthog jet is back in the Middle East\u2014seven years after the attack planes withdrew.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">The prospect of A-10s joining the war against Islamic State was subject to rumors in September, when elements of the Indiana Air National Guard\u2019s 122nd Fighter Wing\u2014which flies the twin-engine A-10\u2014deployed to Southwest Asia.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">While it\u2019s not clear whether the Indiana A-10s have carried out any strikes against Islamic State yet \u2026 they surely will soon. The Warthogs\u2019 mission is to provide close-air support to Iraqi army and police and Kurdish Peshmerga troops fighting on the ground.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">An Air Force spokesman confirmed to <i>Air Force<\/i> magazine that the A-10s \u201cwill only be supporting military requirements in the Gulf region, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.airforcemag.com\/DRArchive\/Pages\/2014\/November%202014\/November%2026%202014\/A-10s%20Support%20Inherent%20Resolve.aspx\">including but not limited to<\/a>, Operation Inherent Resolve.\u201d<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">Inherent Resolve is the Pentagon\u2019s code name for air strikes and other U.S.-led efforts targeting Islamic State.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This is not a surprise.<\/p>\n<p>The demands of the tactical situation on the ground require an aircraft like the A-10, but the Air Force has been indifferent to the tactical situation on the ground since before it was an independent service (Bill Mauldin notes this in his memoir <i>The Brass Ring<\/i>, which covers his experiences in WWII).<\/p>\n<p>Considering the level of dysfunctionalality in the Pentagon, the fact that the US Air Force is probably the most dysfunctional service truly scary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Even as they are trying to kill it, the A-10 Warthog deployed for combat service in Iraq: The low- and slow-flying A-10 Warthog jet is back in the Middle East\u2014seven years after the attack planes withdrew.The prospect of A-10s joining the war against Islamic State was subject to rumors in September, when elements of the &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1007,1063,1098],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-185419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aviation","category-iraq","category-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185419"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185419\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}