Report and photos by Robbie van Disseldorp (this article first appeared in the September 2022 issue of Scramble Aviation Magazine.)
Every two years the A-10 community comes together for a few days of competition and camaraderie. After winning the overall team competition in the last edition of Hawgsmoke, the 190th Fighter Squadron (FS) was tasked with hosting this year’s event. All A-10 squadrons in Air National Guard (ANG), Air Force Reserves, and Active Duty were invited and for the first time in a long while all Hawg squadrons accepted the invitation. On 6 September 2022, 37 A-10Cs arrived at Gowen Field ANGB (ID) to compete in the 2022 edition of Hawgsmoke.
History
The roots of Hawgsmoke lie in the old Gunsmoke competition. Gunsmoke started in 1949 and was a biannual air-to-surface gunnery meet for conventional weapons, hosted by the US Air Force (USAF) at Nellis AFB. Before it was revived in 2019, the last edition of Gunsmoke took place in 1995. At that time the USAF decided to stop organizing the Gunsmoke competition. While the USAF didn’t think that a gunnery meet was necessary anymore, the A-10 community clearly thought otherwise. In 1996, Col. Cliff Latta conceived the idea of Hawgsmoke in order to showcase his unit to the other ANG A-10 squadrons. The first unofficial Hawgsmoke took place in 1996 at Battle Creek ANGB (MI). The 175th Fighter Wing (MD ANG) took home the first trophy that year. Even though the first edition of Hawgsmoke was a success, it was soon forgotten and it took another effort from Col. Latta to revive it again. In 2000 the first official Hawgsmoke was held and this time it was here to stay.
Hawgsmoke 2022
The agenda for this edition shows that Hawgsmoke these days is still very much based on the principles of which it was founded 26 years ago. At that time Hawgsmoke founder Col. Latta said: ‘Hawgsmoke was established to allow current Hawg Pilots an opportunity to show their stuff. The goal was to have a low-key fighter pilot weekend with the comrades…that just happened to have a competition attached.’ While that competition element is still the highlight of the week, a lot of time is indeed spent outside the cockpit. On day one, after the arrival of all the units, the event opened with a ceremony to honor all the fallen A-10 pilots, known as the “Reading of the List” Ceremony. All the names of the fallen Hawg drivers were read out loud while a 4-ship missing man formation flew overhead. Most of day two was spent on the golf course. Day three is range day and this is where all the squadrons showed their stuff and competed in a weapons delivery competition.
Every squadron decides for itself how their Hawgsmoke team is picked. Col. Ryan “R2” Richardson, 124th FW Ops Group Commander, explains: “Most of the time there will be a flying competition locally where they do a turkey shoot, graded events and they’ll select a team. Sometimes they just hand select depending on if they’re able to conduct such a competition or not. But without a doubt what you’re going to see flying here will be some of the finest Hawg drivers, Guard, Active Duty, or Reserves in the world. So it's an opportunity to get some good pilots together."
Hawg Meet
Most participating units brought their own A-10s to Gowen Field ANGB except for the 25th FS out of Osan AB, South Korea, and the 422nd TES and 66th WPS out of Nellis AFB, NV. Pilots of the 25th FS used the 104th FS A-10s while both Nellis units used 190th and 163rd FS jets. The following A-10 units were part of the competition:
25th FS 'Assam Draggins' PACAF
47th FS 'Flying Termites’ AFRes
66th WPS ACC
75th FS ‘Tiger Sharks’ ACC
104th FS ‘The Fightin' O's’ Maryland ANG
107th FS ‘Red Devils’ Michigan ANG
163rd FS ‘Blacksnakes’ Indiana ANG
190th FS ‘Skullbangers’ Idaho ANG
303rd FS ‘KC Hawgs’ AFRes
354th FS ‘Bulldogs’ ACC
357th FS ‘Dragons’ PACAF
422nd TES 'Green Bats ' ACC
Friendly Competition
What makes Hawgsmoke challenging for the aircrews is that the different weapons competition elements are kept secret right up until they are about to take off or are already airborne. The host unit gets to pick the events and this year it was the 124th FW weapons officer along with the 190th FS squadron commander and director of operations that set out a challenging scenario for the flying competition. Col. Richardson explains: ‘It started with an ingress route tasking that was passed to the pilots once inflight, they then had to navigate low level to a first run attack against a challenging target set using both forward firing and free fall munitions. This attack was dry meaning, all ordinance was simulated, but parameters and recorded footage were used by the judges to assess the validity of the attacks.’
Next up, the flight progressed to the bombing and gunnery portion of the competition, which occurred on the Saylor Creek Aerial Gunnery Range (SCR). SCR is located roughly 60 miles south of Boise (ID) and is part of the vast Mountain Home Range complex. Col. Richardson continues: ‘this portion consisted of computed and non-computed bombing deliveries from different altitudes against a pre-planned stationary target. After that the teams moved to Long Range and Low Angle strafe events on the conventional strafing targets. If the team managed their time on range effectively they were allowed to move to the bonus event which was a non-computed strafe delivery conducted out of a medium altitude diving attack. After leaving the range, teams were tasked to locate and visually identify different threat vehicles that had been placed in the range complex. It was a fast paced scenario that made the pilots adjust plans airborne and work as a team to be successful.’ For the competition, all A-10s were armed with 300 30mm rounds and three BDU-50 500lb inert bombs.
Results
In the end, it was the host squadron, the 190th FS "Skullbangers" who took home the best overall award once again. This was the unit's fourth victory, which puts them solely in first place as the squadron with the most all-time Hawgsmoke wins. Since a unit cannot host Hawgsmoke twice in a row, the next edition in 2024 will be held at Davis Monthan AFB, AZ. The KC Hawgs of the 303rd FS took home the Top Strafe Team while the 354th FS was named the Top Bombing team. The last team award was for the Top Tactical Team, which went to the 47th FS.
The Top A-10 Overall Attack Pilot award went to Lt. Col. John Marks, of the 303rd FS. Lt. Col. Marks is a well-known pilot in the A-10 community. He has been flying the A-10 since 1987 and is the only pilot who has clocked more than 7000 hours in the aircraft. He is also credited with 23 tank kills during Desert Storm in 1991.
Overall Hawgsmoke brings a lot of value to the A-10 community and Col. Richardson was quick to point that out. ‘Firstly, it provides valuable tactical and weapons delivery training for our pilots. The competition itself is intense and pushes A-10 drivers to perform to their highest potential with most of them flying on an unfamiliar range. Second, it is a rare opportunity to get the community together for valuable cross-talk. We discuss tactical scenarios as well as challenges that each unit faces. It gives us a chance to share ideas and techniques that not only make us better as pilots but also on ideas on how to improve our organizations. Last, it builds comradery and relationships inside of the A-10 community.’
Ask any member of NATO ground forces about his favorite aircraft and 99% of them will answer, the A-10! Even with the A-10s stellar history of success, it remains a controversial aircraft for US Air Force leadership. The Pentagon has been trying to divest the A-10 for years while US politicians keep blocking their plans. It is always a question of how many units will participate in the next edition. For example, it is quite possible that Hawgsmoke 2022 was the last time we saw the 163rd FS (IN ANG) participate. The Blacksnakes are scheduled to transfer to the F-16 in the near future. In the meantime, the A-10 community continues to block all the outside noise. Their focus is on being ready when called upon and making sure that the A-10 continues to be a very effective weapons platform. We certainly observed that with our own eyes during Hawgsmoke 2022.
