Warthog (P)

By: William L. Smallwood

Narrated by: Steve Owens

A valentine for one of the ugliest, albeit most lethally effective, warplanes ever built--as well as for the men who flew them during the Desert Storm campaign. Drawing on interviews with over one hundred A-10 pilots who served in the Persian Gulf during the 1990-91 hostilities, Smallwood (himself an aviator and Korean War vet) offers riveting perspectives on aerial combat. Setting the stage with an informative briefing on how, in the 70's, the Air Force developed the A-10 (a.k.a. "Warthog'') as a means of supporting ground troops with massive firepower, he moves into anecdotal vignettes detailing the ways in which so-called "hog drivers" and their commanders whiled away the weary hours of the calm before the storm in Saudi Arabia's inhospitable clime.

At the heart of his narrative, however, are vivid accounts of how A-10s accomplished their tank-busting missions and then some once the battle was joined. Tasked, among other objectives, to take out missile launchers and artillery emplacements far behind the front lines (assignments normally reserved for jet fighters), the slow-moving, heavily armed Warthogs were credited with over half the bomb damage inflicted on Iraqi forces and installations. Employing improvisational tactics, A-10s also flew reconnaissance and assisted in rescues of coalition pilots; they even scored air-to- air kills, downing a couple of enemy choppers. Indeed, the plane's ungainly Gatling-gun platform performed so well that pilots demanded their craft be redesignated "RFOA-10" (for "reconnaissance/fighter/observation/attack").

©1993 Potomac Books, Inc. (P)2023 Potomac Books

Amazing history of the men that flew the irreplaceable A-10 during Desert Storm.

Narration felt disjointed due to all the word injections throughout the story such as ranks and names or air force terms.

Horrible narration

I read the reviews before buying and have to agree the voices and the narration is hard to listen to. But a little deeper about the way the accounts were put together and maybe embellished. When I listen to the accounts one thought comes to mind is if the pilots were so taxed with some of the evolutions, (flying long distance) did they think that everyone would come to the US to fight? (dangers of the job and missions assigned and being away from home) they should have become accountants or insurance salesmen if they were so scared and homesick. Although I cannot believe that men who choose this profession don’t want to be gone more than a week or panic and complain if their tasking is dangerous or outside the norm. One minute he has the pilots being anxious to go to war then the next wanting to go home. Then wanting to be included in the Op Tasking then complaining because it was outside of what they were used to. He makes the pilots sound like bipolar or schizophrenic crybabies who want to say they were there and fought but were too scared to take risks inherent with the job. The raw information you could glean from the book was overall good though.

Great stories of the "ugly girls" of Desert Storm

This is the 5th military aviation book I've read after Viper Pilot, Vipers in the Storm, Lords of the Sky, and Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War.

This book is most similar to the first two- if you like combat tales related in the first person, and by a decent narrator, this book's a must have. This perspective of the low level ground situation in Desert Storm is jaw dropping.

Don't worry about the "cartoonish" voices the narrator sometimes uses - I assume he was told by the author who interviewed all these pilots to "speak like this for this for this guy, and like that for that guy" etc. It's full of action, and will inspire you to appreciate the ground pounders and CAS pilots in a new light, especially if you were first lured to mil aviation by the fast jets like I was.

I grew up with hogs flying overhead ever day out of Davis Monthan AFB, and after this book, and some playing around in the Hog in DCS World, I see now that the planes, pilots, and mission are equally as incredible as the F-16.

Iconic account of an incredible time in history

A must read. The detail and perspective are truly remarkable. Impressive what these men and machines were able to accomplish. ATTACK!

Good book ruined by cartoonish voices of the narrator.

This would have have been a great purchase, but it was ruined by ridiculous, over the top characterizations by the narrative. If he had just used his normal voice it would’ve been fine, good even. But he chose to give cartoon voices to the people quoted in the book. The voices would’ve been bad in a work of fiction, but this is non-fiction which makes it a jaw-droppingly dumb choice. It seemed to me the narrator was mocking instead of reading. This all made a good book unlistenable.