I’ll never forget back in the early ‘80s my wife and I were walking across a dry lake bed in northern Maine when a group of A-10s appeared and flew in our direction. They stayed slightly north as they passed very low. All we could think of was “we’d be dead” if they were after us.
“We’d be dead”. I had the same thought.
I was working at a small airport where two A-10’s would leave every morning and come back later. I was on a taxi-way and at the other end was an A-10 parked. A guy drove out to tell me to get off the taxiway when the A-10 was there. “He’s aiming his gun, and it’s loaded. We’ve never had an accident, but...”
I guess they would take off and do their training runs. One day I was standing on top of the cargo van taking photos of the site, parked in the grassy infield. One A-10 landed, and the other one flew right over my head. Low. I just laughed and thought “I’m dead!”