A-10 pilot Tom Chuck, considered a legend in the Air Force community, said on Tuesday that the politicians can’t take one shot to save the A-10. “Politicians have to be engaged all the way until the end,” said Chuck. The A-10, considered the most versatile airplane in the Air Force fleet, is on the chopping block due to the department’s desire for “sexier” according to pilots.
Chuck appeared on a Tucson radio show on Tuesday in response to the apparent apathy by Tucson politicians to save the plane and its Tucson home, Davis Monthan Air Force Base.
Chuck condemned the efforts of retired A-10 pilot and and current candidate for congress, Colonel Martha McSally. “She is a Rino and a coward. She has written about what an expert she is; why don’t you crack into that Rolodex and try to save the A-10? We are looking for a leader,” he said. “I do appreciate Ron Barber’s speech on the House floor, but it is time to bring this to a national audience to stop what we are seeing happen before our very eyes.”
While it is the future of the base that concerns most of Tucson’s civilian residents, it is the welfare of the troops on the ground that concern most A-10 pilots and other military members. The A-10’s maneuverability and the skilled pilots have made the plane indispensable to “boots on the ground” who find themselves out numbered and under siege.
Arizona’s Senator Jeff Flake told a Tucson radio audience this summer that the F-35 would replace the A-10. The admission gave little comfort to Tucsonans who had just lost the opportunity to host the F-35 to Phoenix’s Luke Air Force Base, and gave less comfort to those aware of the F-35’s limitations and performance issues.
“Unlike the normal testing development process, you normally run it, explore the envelope. I don’t know what happened on this train wreck but they are now using computer modeling and design to test, while they are rolling the F-35 off the assembly line and the tests are showing problems.”