Posted on 03/03/2020 6:05:04 AM PST by C19fan
The crew of a U.S. gunship have been awarded bravery medals at a ceremony in Florida after they rained fire down on Islamic State militants for hours, as allied soldiers on the ground were whisked to safety.
Forces on the ground came under heavy fire from ISIS militants in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan on April 3, 2019, in a ferocious fight which one Major on the ground likened to infamous WW2 battle Iwo Jima.
They called for backup from 'Spooky 41' - a AC-13OU gunship, and the Hercules-variant plane arrived within minutes to provide covering fire and ensure medical helicopters could safely evacuate the injured.
The crew were up in the air for nine hours and managed to suppress enemy fire during the evacuation of 15 wounded soldiers.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I guess “Spooky” sounds good, but I miss the days of “Puff the Magic Dragon” in reference to the 130 gunships...
It’s one very impressive aircraft. I was recently watching some old videos of it on YouTube and how it rained horrors on the nva in Name. Btw I’m laughing on how they call the night vision optics as night vision Radar!
Somebody owes the crew in the back a drink or two. Humping ammo to load ammo and clear brass for 9 hours is hard work.
Nice to have a CiCthat can say something other than “Stand down.”
IMHO there seems to be a constant mindset in a lot of senior officers to want to eliminate older aircrafts that are past a certain age in preference to all newer & sexier models that fires off these multi million dollars weapons per shot. The AC-10 flying Cannon and the spooky, immediately come to mind. Also I recall that one of the selling points for the hugely expensive F35 was that it can do that job but it only carries 200 rounds of ammo!
I call it “A-10 Syndrome”. can’t figure it out, then again I’m not a traitor nor do I value my opinions over other people’s lives!
American MSM is the enemy. The Daily mail and UK telegraph were THE ONLY 2 NEWSPAPERS which actually reported non bias the war in Iraq 2003 onwards.
While the AP drooled over dead American GI’S and wanted their own Vietnam..
I saw one terrible stat. In WW2, the 8th AF had more deaths than the Marine Corp.
The problem is that you can’t hide from it because the fire comes from above you. Crouching in a hole doesn’t work
I agree. Kinda strange it is something relatively low tech that is so impressive. Smart bombs just don't put the fear of God into the enemy until after he's blown up.
Is this the crew that has the hot looking gunner that any man would die for to take to the prom? Serious intent with a playful smile. What’s not to like?
ISIS troglodytes are used to hiding in caves. Which makes for convenient body disposal via Semtex charges in the entryway.
Agreed. There is a place for air to air combat, since if provides air supremacy so that the rest of the Air Force can then accomplish relevant missions. However, the whole point of the Air Force is to accomplish military objectives, not to provide fast, expensive toys for hotdog pilots.
In 1943 they set the tour of duty to 25 missions. The typical crew didn’t make it past 5.
Plus thermal imaging; they can pretty much light you up from anywhere above.
It’s absolute Hell from the sky when those weapon systems get going.
No, they're USAF assets under AFSOC, the Air Force's USSOCOM component command.
The RAF's Bomber Command casualty rate was bad too- actually painful to contemplate.
I have never seen a direct comparison of stats for the 8th AF fighter-bomber/close air support casualties vs the 9th AF; they would be an apple vs orange comparison in many ways, but nonetheless interesting.
12 O’Clock High is a great movie documentation of that! I used to live at the RAF base where they filmed that flick!
Thanks for clarifying.
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