'Warthog': It's low, slow and lethal

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE — Air Force Capt. Jon Scheer flies a relatively slow-moving attack aircraft that has wings that stick straight out and is called the "Warthog" — a nickname that does not denote power, grace or beauty.

The A-10 "Warthog" is the warplane of choice for Capt. Jon Scheer, an A-10 pilot out of Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. Scheer and other A-10 pilots from Eielson were in Hawai'i recently training with Air Force and Army units. William Cole • The Honolulu Advertiser

Estimates are that A-10s were responsible for half of the Iraqi tanks and Scud missiles destroyed in the first Gulf War.

Scheer, weapons officer for the 355th Fighter Squadron out of Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska, has been in Hawai'i with six A-10s for training with other Air Force and Army units at Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island. The jets will be making the 15-hour flight home to Alaska today via California.

"Impressive would probably be the word that I'd give you," Scheer said of the A-10's performance in Iraq.

"Not having been there, having not spoken to them — I'm seeing what's on CNN — but I can tell you, they're executing the mission that we're trained to do, and the results that they are achieving are the result of this (type of) training here."

The A-10s have been flying daily in exercises with Army helicopters and ground forces and the Air Force's 25th Air Support Operations Squadron out of Wheeler Army Airfield, which talks to the A-10 pilots from the ground to put "bombs on target."

"One of the biggest things (we train on) is how to speak jointly. They speak Army and we speak Air Force, and a lot of times the first time you interact with them, you learn to speak each other's language," Scheer said. "The same term may mean one thing to an Army officer or Army soldier and it may mean something totally different to an Air Force pilot."

The A-10, first delivered to the Air Force in 1975, is built around a 30 mm Gatling gun in its snout that can fire 3,900 rounds a minute and carries enough kinetic energy to shred tank armor.

The twin-engined jets also can carry up to 16,000 pounds of ordnance, including MK-82 and MK-84 bombs, and laser-guided and Maverick anti-tank missiles.

"It's the close-air support airplane that the Army wants supporting them," Scheer said.

The 30-year-old pilot, who's from Michigan, said he wouldn't want to fly any other airplane.

"It's a durable airplane. Yeah, we're not the pointy-nosed airplane that everyone likes, and that's fine," said Scheer, whose call sign is "Cosmo." "We're not a sleek-looking airplane, but it gives us a loiter time and ability to carry a lot of ordnance, and be able to support those guys on the ground."

With a relatively low speed of 420 mph, and often flying close to the ground, the A-10s take more than their fair share of small arms and anti-aircraft fire, but are designed for maximum pilot protection with a titanium "bathtub" surrounding the cockpit, flight controls that are redundant, and the ability to fly the single-seat aircraft without hydraulic control.

Last Monday, an A-10 pilot with the 23rd Fighter Group out of Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina, flew her crippled jet back to base riddled with holes after a mission over Baghdad. A day later, another pilot ejected safely after his Warthog was brought down by ground fire.

Scheer got his own view of combat — and enemy ground fire — in Operation Allied Force in Kosovo in 1999. A lot of the A-10 pilots have been involved in either Operation Northern Watch or Southern Watch patrolling no-fly zones in Iraq, he said.

"I can say that training exercises like we're doing here (on the Big Island) is what prepared us to be able to go over there (Kosovo) and be able to deploy effectively," Scheer said. "The way that the United Sates military trains and prepares — we're ready to go. We are the best Air Force and best military in the world, and there's a reason for it, and it's because we train to the level that we expect to execute when we get the call."