Today’s very brief post is about (then) Capt. Kim Campbell, 332nd Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, and A-10 Thunderbolt II pilot. I didn’t know until I had read her story some years back that they let women into combat now and this story seems to be proof they should have done it sooner. The A-10 Thunderbolt is a ground support aircraft, specifically tasked with close air support. That means it has to fly into the teeth of enemy air defenses, low and slow, to respond to calls for air support from ground troops. It’s incredibly dangerous and Campbell found this out the hard way when her A-10 took severe damage over Baghdad in 2003. She lost hydraulics, which in any other aircraft would have meant loss of control. But the A-10 was built for this and she managed to fly it home without hydraulics, apparently a pretty amazing feat.
Not something I can see the F-22 or F-35 surviving.
You can read about what happened here: http://www.hotsr.com/news/WireHeadlines/2009/11/17/capt-kim-n-campbell-u-s-air-force-distin-100.php
Two things I like about the whole thing: first, her call sign is badass–”Killer Chick.”
Second, her reaction to getting hit was to get really mad. A lesson to you all, don’t shoot at an A-10 pilot. It just makes them mad and they come back the next day and bomb and strafe the shit out of you.
Posted by callitaweasel 
