Yep part of the reason I was rooting for Mrs. McSally to win senate race in AZ. Though I have heard other side of the story from some of my acquaintances regarding the how and why of promotions there too.
But A-10s I agree take nads of steel and real guts...so nice to hear mingling humility too (though it makes sense given you work so close with real stories and results to share in quieter moments).
To me A-10 is not a fighter plane though (like OP video), it is CAS like you said....heavy duty but precise ground assault. The bigger badder descendant of the Stuka bomber. Design the gun, then design aircraft around that gun really says enough lol.
Well, normally I wouldn't be voting (or rooting) for any republican, but seeing Sinema was a Mormon (She is bi-sexual by te way, hence she left the church), I am not sure who should I be rooting for, because I hate republican and Mormon probably equally. So basically the senate race in Arizona is a loss for me, because they will now have an ex-Mormon and a Republican on the 2 senate seats....
This is McSally in the Air Force official portrait
Most of the time, fighter come down from 15000 or 20000 fts to drop bomb and they will move away, you have to understand to be a A-10 pilot, you fly low and slow, which mean when you come down to 50 or 100 ft and strafe the ground, the MFker will shoot at you. And flying a plane that big and that slow means you are going to be a pretty good target. I am a small guy compare to a plane, I can find cover, but in that plane, you have no where to hide.
And your enemy is always going to know you are coming in, because the engine blast will give you up long before you get there, most of the time those pilot ask us to fire everything we have to try to mask the noise before they swoop in, and usually we just unload on the enemy with everything, M4s, M203s, SAW, 240 Bravo, M2 on our Humvee and so on.
But when you hear the BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRHHHH coming down, you really do have an urge to stand up and cheer, real story.