BTW, the USAF has always been rather lukewarm to the idea of close air support, preferring to leave that to carrier-based Marine flyers.
Case in point: The A-10. The USAF hates the damn thing. Always has. As soon as decently possible, they sent it out to ANG units. I mean the thing is ugly, it can barely make 500mph in a dive, and operates at low altitude. Blows up tanks. BFD. Yuck-O. The real AF is at 50,000+, flying at Mach3, and using missiles to shoot down the enemies of uhmerrika! It must be flown by blond, blue-eyed guys who are not satisfied with one nickname like "Biff," but must have a flier handle, as well, "Trash-Hog," "Busterface", "Slobbo," etc.
The A-10 belongs in something like the old USAAF, but according to the "Treaty of Key West," the Army got missiles and helos, no fixed wing stuff with guns or bombs on it. One other thing: Nobody could wear brown shoes, anymore and that's final. Nobody, got it?
“...the USAF has always been rather lukewarm to the idea of close air support...”
I spent my time in the Army as a multi-engine, fixed wing mechanic. (67K20 to you Army guys). We had the DHC CV-2 Caribou, designed by the Army and de Havilland as a light troop transport/cargo plane. The Air Force threw a fit about troop carrying being their job and stole it from us; they really didn’t need it, the C-123 worked fine for them. They just didn’t want us to be independent in moving troops.
We also had the OV-1 Mohawk, a sweet little recon turboprop which was also capable of having rocket pods mounted on the wings for ground support. Again, the Air Force pouted and we had to remove all
armament effectively limiting its role and making it only half as useful. What was the point if they didn’t like the close support role?
As a result, I ended up wasting five months of school only to end up cross-training to helicopters. I was not very happy.
Side note: An A-10 driver that I know did several tours in Afganistan and in Iraq. He said he met a translater working for the US that told him Iraqis called the A-10 the Dragon Plane.
If you have ever seen one shoot in person, it makes perfect sense. It is a very intimidating thing between the smoke and the sound, not to mention the diabolical destruction that gun can do.