Thought I'd share some screen shots from a mission I flew last night in A-10. I'm practicing writing narrated After Action Reports, so I had a general narrative in mind for this one...it all went out the window when the s*it hit the fan.
Enjoy!
It was a cold winter evening in Beslan. My wingman and I had been pulled from our regular ATO by our CO, and reassigned temporarily to a CIA run special operations wing. We had arrived earlier that morning and proceeded straight to the briefing room.
Our target was a small terrorist FARP near the border of Russia and Abkhazia. We were to provide CAS and JTAC for a special operations team; their goal was extraction of the target, one unnamed terrorist leader that was responsible for the deaths of thousands in an attack on Georgian soil. One caveat, crossing the border of Russia or Azkhabia could result in hostilities, so we were to avoid that at all costs.
((Note to self, take pics of briefings))
Got the jet booted up, and recieved taxi clearance from the tower at Beslan. We have an escort to the runway today:
Passed this guy on the way out to the active...this is how you KNOW the CIA is involved:
Wheels up! I love these beautiful 'Euro' green camouflaged Hawgs...
As I begin my climb out towards our target, I decide to take a look around...
Our CAP support is provided by two F-15s today:
Spec Ops team on the way to the rendezvous point:
Our recon for the evening:
Getting closer to the rendezvous, I call in SEAD, a 4-ship of German Tornadoes:
Per the briefing, I clear them in hot to clear the SAMs that are lying in wait for us:
They give me the all clear just a few minutes later. I thought to myself how quick that was, but took them at their word. This soon proved to be a mistake with near fatal consequences.
My wingman and I cleared our holding pattern near the rendezvous point, and proceeded to the initial-point. As we were inbound, I recieved a lock warning on my RWR. Missiles inbound!
Shortly after this picture was taken, I took an SA-11 to the right side of the aircraft, causing a massive engine failure, fire, and a quick yank on the ejection handles. I must have gotten the golden missile, as my aircraft exploded shortly thereafter.
Interesting conclusion to an interesting mission! I think I am going to use the mission planner in the future to get a better idea of target areas and threats.
Edit: tried to resize the images, but photobucket wasnt being nice. Sorry for the large pics.
Nice write up.
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