By now many of you have seen
pictures floating around the web of Capt. Kim "KC" Campbell's
battle damaged A-10 from Operation Iraqi Freedom. She is also
featured in the Story section here on ARC. "KC"'s jet
was hit by ground fire while supporting troops north of Baghdad during
the war. She lost all hydraulics in her A/C and had to nurse the
jet home for an hour flying it in "reversionary" mode.
Reversionary mode is a
feature that only the A-10 has and allows the pilot to fly the jet using
only gears and pulleys to manipulate the control surfaces.
"KC" was able to nurse the jet home and just goes to show you
how tough both her and the A-10 are.
Capt. Campbell, Twesme
and Virga, all from the 75th FS provided references to the Two Bobs for
all their jets and actually picked the subject matter for this sheet
themselves! Capt. Twesme was a model builder back in the day but
like most active duty pilots, he doesn't find the time to build anymore.
I'm sure he'll carve a few hours out of his busy schedule now though!
The first aircraft was
KC's jet on the mission stated above. Even though she was assigned
to the 75th FS, this is a 74th FS jet. This A/C features full
color wing and squadron insignia from the famous Flying Tigers of the
23rd Wing.
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