@sneakypete
I agree. My interpretation of what I am reading is the AF does not want CAS... to slow, to hard, to dangerous and not sexy enough. The AF would be happy if the Army or Marines took it over....
Very disappointing...
@EdinVA The USAF brass has never cared about anything that wasn't a zoomie fighter aircraft.
I honestly think that in the case of the old A1E that stayed in service for so many years and the B-52 that this pig-headedness worked in favor of our men on the ground as well as for strategic bombing purposes with the B-52's.
BTW,it is nothing less than awesome to stand along a runway and watch a flight of loaded B-52's take off for a bombing missing. Noise so freaking loud you can FEEL it hit your body,and then you look and see the damn wings flapping up and down as it tries to take off with all that weight.
It really is one of the things you have to see for yourself to understand.
And here is the Air Farce brass trying to re-invent the freaking wheel?
What the hell is the matter with those bozo's?
BTW,I once had a flight of B-52's drop down to the deck and fly close air-support for the 6 man recon team I was working with in Laos. We were surrounded on a hilltop and the NVA were trying to over run us. We had already had a couple of flights of A1E's and zoomies doing bomb and gun runs,and here comes the freaking B-52's,flying so low you could see the numbers painted on them. When those big boys started circling and opening their bomb bay doors,you could hear the NVA screaming in panic as they ran away. There ain't no surviving a 500 lb bomb dropped on your asses!