Saturday, February 9, 2013

81st Fighter Squadron A-10Cs departed Spangdahlem for exercise REAL THAW 2013

By Joachim Jacob, Warthog News Editor

Updated February 12, 2013

As already officialy reported by 52nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs, an undisclosed number of A-10Cs from the 81st Fighter Squadron "Panthers", 52nd Fighter Wing (USAFE), Spangdahlem AB, Germany, departed Feb. 8 for Air Base 5, Monte Real, Portugal, in support of exercice REAL THAW 13.

Meanwhile, on the German Flugzeugforum, Warthog News contributor Oliver Jonischkeit from Germany posted the following picture:


A-10C 82-0650 departs Spangdahlem for Portugal. (Photo by Oliver Jonischkeit) Full size

As Oliver posted on the Dutch Scramble Messageboard, the following six "Hogs" departed for this exercise:

A-10C 81-0981
A-10C 81-0962
A-10C 81-0966
A-10C 82-0650
A-10C 82-0654
A-10C 82-0656

Source

Update February 12, 2013

Over the weekend, Oliver e-mailed me departure shots of all six "Hogs":


A-10C 81-0962. (Photo by Oliver Jonischkeit) Full size


A-10C 81-0966, marked 52 OG as the 52nd Operations Group commander's aircraft. (Photo by Oliver Jonischkeit) Full size


A-10C 81-0981. (Photo by Oliver Jonischkeit) Full size


A-10C 82-0650. (Photo by Oliver Jonischkeit) Full size


A-10C 82-0654. (Photo by Oliver Jonischkeit) Full size


A-10C 82-0656. (Photo by Oliver Jonischkeit) Full size

BTW: In his e-mail Oliver pointed out that these "Hogs" departed Spangdahlem AB with callsigns Retro01-06, normally not used for inter-European NATO "deployments", much more for flights from Europe to Continental United States (CONUS). Maybe that could be a sign, these jets would never return to Germany...

1 comment:

  1. Hello from Portugal. I found your blog about Warthogs and I like it. I saw the 6 A-10 C landing at Monte Real air base for Real Thaw 2013. I will cover the exercice and if you want to my blog: http://cannontwo.blogspot.com/ has the first post with my photos from 2007 last time that the A-10 were at Monte Real. Hope you like it and if you need some photos send me an email:
    jorge_ruivo@net.sapo.pt
    Regards from Portugal
    Jorge Ruivo

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