Starting October 1, the Air Force will cut the training hours for A-10 pilots by 35%, and the A-10 training class starting in April 2014 in the 358th Fighter Squadron has just been cancelled.
Sources anticipate that the A-10 will fly at a normal rate for the first part of FY14 then start a reduction because without students, there is no reason to fly.
According to a Tucson radio show host, the news was conveyed to A-10 pilots early this month, and nearly a month after Arizona Senator Jeff Flaked revealed that the A-10 was on the Air Force chopping block.
Tucson is the home of the Davis Monthan Air Force Base, a training base for the A-10. Flake’s revelation shook the community and reverberated through the A-10 community.
On a Tucson radio this week, A-10 pilot, Lt. Colonel Crack, and one of the men he saved, Sergeant Maurice Alejandro Arias, spoke of their experience.
“On June 5, 2008, we came under heavy attack from our enemies. We got a couple of vehicles disabled and I was running on my last bucket of ammo with only about 500 rounds left after shooting about 2000 rounds. Literally my platoon sergeant was about to decide to take the hill up because there was nothing left that we could do. It was looking pretty bad having two vehicles disabled.” The sergeant was debating whether to have the men put their bayonets on, which would have meant close battle. “The reason that didn’t happen was because God, in His power, decided to help us that day and two A-10 air craft jets showed up.”
Sergeant Arias said he was very relieved to “see these jets, scaring the enemy and taking care of the fight. If it weren’t for the job these A-10 pilots do, and the A-10 family, I wouldn’t be talking to you guys.”
He continued, “I didn’t really know about any aircraft until then and I didn’t know anything about the Air Force, I am in the Army, and it was just great that day to meet the A-10s. It was the greatest day of my life.”
Arias said that they were posed to protect their vehicles and the enemy was very close. Crack explained that the enemy was only about 60 meters away from Arias and his group. Arias said it was like seeing the “Calvary showing up.” The A-10 pilots told Arias and his group, “We got this” and told the group to get inside, close the hatch and get tied down in order to get out of the line for fire. “I thought, this guy’s crazy,” said Arias, “I’m not leaving the fight. What is he thinking?” What I did not know was the magnitude and the great things that these jets do and what they are trained to do until that moment, and we felt it inside our vehicle. Our vehicle was kinda bouncing everywhere and then we thought, ‘Oh my gosh!’ Thank God we were listening to what they said in our vehicle. I learned to listen to the pilots then.”
Lt. Colonel Crack said they came about Sergeant Arias’s crew when they were automatically diverted to them in their third engagement of the day. “As we went to the third tasking, we were supposed to escort a convoy and they didn’t show up. They had vehicle trouble so they never left their forward operating base.” Crack explained that while he was on the radio with the Joint Tactical Air Controller, he was told that a convoy might be under attack. The JTAC asked Lt. Colonel Crack if they could check it out.
“We got the coordinates, and literally, it was about 7 ½ minutes flight time from where we were at. We show up, the vehicle that Mousta (Sergeant Arias’s nickname) was in and three other vehicles were kinda isolated and in a cross fire from some high terrain from the enemy. IEDs and RPGs had disabled one of the vehicles. The rest of the convoy had kinda scooted up around the bend in the road. Once we finally, through some really tough communications, got on the right radio with the right people, and told all the wrong people to stop talking on that radio frequency, we were able to help out and really do the best we could.”
Lt. Colonel Crack said, “We all love the jet we fly, but I have been an A-10 guy since about ’96, got a lot of friends like Mousta from the special operations side to the conventional side and I’ll tell ya, I’ve got a lot of equipment on the A-10; full color displays, a moving map, a turning pod helmet mounted queuing, and I pretty much wadded all that up and threw it in the basket because all I needed was the jet, the gun, and being able to see the friendlies and see the enemy. We went back to absolute basics.”
It is those basics and the fact that the A-10 can get so close that make it invaluable to soldiers like Sergeant Arias.
Sergeant Arias and Lt. Colonel Crack met not long after that close call. They met at Bagram Air Force base about two days later, when Sergeant Arias’s crew was getting their vehicles, which Lt. Colonel Crack described as “looking like Swiss cheese” repaired. They shook hands, introduced themselves and moved on to their duties.
Lt. Colonel Crack later heard from Arias after a 4th of July holiday. “I came back and found a note sitting on my desk. He was like, ‘Hey sir, this is Mousta, gunner, gunner truck three’ and left his telephone number. Mousta ended up getting engaged to a lovely young lady who serves in the Air Force, and she got stationed at Wyman, and I’ve been to his college graduation. Jimmy Mack and I have been to his wedding. It’s all been really good.”
This is just one story, out of thousands, about A-10 pilots saving lives. It is stories like these that cause so much loyalty to the A-10 from both service people on the ground and in the A-10 community.