Razorback’s A-10 Finale

Arkansas Air National Guard pilots flew the final A-10 training sortie from Ebbing ANG Base before the 188th Fighter Wing’s conversion to intelligence and remotely piloted aircraft missions, announced the unit. “I’m going to miss flying over Arkansas and seeing it through the cockpit canopy for sure,” said 188th Operations Support Squadron Commander Lt. Col. Marty Dahlem after the ground-attack training sortie on May 16. “As a wing, we’ve been flying manned aircraft for 60 years,” said Col. Mark Anderson, the unit’s commander. “While we’re sad that our A-10s had to go, we’re getting a cutting-edge mission that will feature a substantial intelligence and RPA mission,” he said in another release. “It’s definitely bittersweet,” added Anderson when the unit’s first A-10 departed for Moody AFB, Ga., last September. The Fort Smith unit converted to A-10s in April 2007, and marked its largest-ever deployment with the jets to Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, in 2012. The unit’s last three A-10s are slated to depart Fort Smith by early June.