Summary of Buck Wyndham's Hogs in the Sand

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Book Preview: #1 I was born in South Carolina in the 1970s, and when I was 11 years old, I saw a pair of menacing aerial shapes flying low over the beach. They looked like dinosaurs come to life. They were the A-10 Thunderbolt II fighter planes, and I was hooked on them.

#2 The A-10 Warthog is a plane designed to be pitted against a massive, hulking target like a battle tank. It is not sleek or fast, but it is extremely maneuverable. It’s a single-seat attitude and philosophy that means you are completely in charge of your destiny.

#3 When you’re alone in an A-10 cockpit, you feel like you’re a part of the plane. The plane is an extension of your body. You don’t just sit there, you strap the airplane on like a backpack. The airplane is now an extension of your body.

#4 The A-10 was designed to survive and bring its crew home safely, despite suffering severe battle damage. The ground-school instructors explained how the high-bypass turbofan engines ran cool and didn’t emit much hot exhaust.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Mar 17, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669364221

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Book preview

Insights on Buck Wyndham's Hogs in the Sand

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

I was born in South Carolina in the 1970s, and when I was 11 years old, I saw a pair of menacing aerial shapes flying low over the beach. They looked like dinosaurs come to life. They were the A-10 Thunderbolt II fighter planes, and I was hooked on them.

#2

The A-10 Warthog is a plane designed to be pitted against a massive, hulking target like a battle tank. It is not sleek or fast, but it is extremely maneuverable. It’s a single-seat attitude and philosophy that means you are completely in charge of your destiny.

#3

When you’re alone in an A-10 cockpit, you feel like you’re a part of the plane. The plane is an extension of your body. You don’t just sit there, you strap the airplane on like a backpack. The airplane is now an extension of your body.

#4

The A-10 was designed to survive and bring its crew home safely, despite suffering severe battle damage. The ground-school instructors explained how the high-bypass turbofan engines ran cool and didn’t emit much hot exhaust.

#5

The electronic countermeasures pod was a wing-mounted defensive tool that could jam enemy radar signals. It was heavy, but it could save the plane from being hit by missiles.

#6

The A-10 was designed to drop and launch all kinds of conventional ordinance from under its wings, but its most common loads were Maverick missiles and several types of unguided, free-fall bombs. The HUD was the pilot’s optical aiming system, and it projected digital information floating in front of him.

#7

The A-10 is a legend because of its massive gun, which defines the plane and makes it a legend. The rules of thumb for bombing in an A-10 are steep, fast, or low: pickle early. Shallow, slow, or high: pickle late.

#8

The first time I fired the gun was during initial training in Arizona. I lined up my target using the fixed gun pipper, then squeezed the trigger to its first detent. As I squeezed, there was a short dead-zone in the trigger, and then all hell broke loose.

Insights from Chapter 2

#1

A universal truth about warfare is that one should always know your enemy. A-10 pilots did just that, studying Russian tactics, armament, and vehicles. They could identify a Soviet ZSU-23-4 radar-guided gun just from its fuzzy profile in a photograph flashed momentarily on a wall.

#2

The Vultures and the Pirates, being friendly rivals, often competed against each other in weapons-delivery contests called turkey shoots. These aerial shootouts were day-long contests of skill that involved flying at low altitude in four-ship formations to one of the numerous bombing and gunnery ranges along the east coast of England.

#3

The A-10s were the only two American fighter squadrons in England, and they built their camaraderie playing drinking games and singing fighter pilot songs. They heightened their sense of competition by participating in weekly violent games of Crud.

#4

The Vultures were the underdogs of the squadron, and as such, they stuck together. The LPA was an unofficial organization that served to insulate its members from the effects of the OFA, the Old Farts’ Association.

#5

I was friends with a woman named Sarah Price, who was the new assistant maintenance officer for the Vultures. I began to think she might be The One. She already had a boyfriend back in the States, but they had met the previous year in Arizona.

#6

In August 1990, I was at