Decorated pilot speaks in Santa Clara - A-10 Warthog Gal
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1594330/posts
some pics here of shot up A-10
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1594330/posts?page=4#4
I hadn't seen these photos but it was shot up pretty good too.
The A-10 flight flown by Kim Campbell was actually the turning point in the war.
The flight through downtown Baghdad before the US controlled the city was fired on by every anti-aircraft battery still operating in Baghdad. The plane was hit by at least 1 missile and kept flying.
When Campbell turned the Gattling Gun on the Foreign Ministry building right on the Tigris River (a huge 8 story building that was in full view of everyone in the area) and shot the crap out of the building, every Iraqi soldier said "no way am I standing under that kind of fire-power."
When every other Iraqi soldier saw that an American pilot was willing to fly a slow plane 400 feet off the ground with all the anti-aircraft batteries firing at it full-bore and then just keep coming back for more, they knew the US soldiers meant business.
They all fled in the night and Baghdad was occupied by the US the next morning.
In addition to the tanks taking the bridge over the Tigris, the A-10 flight that day, convinced Saddam and all the Iraqi military to RUN.