To bring the story of "Hogs in the Sand" to life, we present some photos of the author's life in England, the squadron's deployment to the desert, and what life was like for the pilots who flew the mighty Warthog in Operation Desert Storm.
RAF Alconbury was home to two squadrons of A-10s, the 509th and 511th Tactical Fighter Squadrons. It was also home to a squadron of U-2 spyplanes.
A single runway bisected the base. The 511th Vultures squadron was on the far side in this photo. Note the numerous hardened aircraft shelters (HASs).
A ground-level look at some of the many HASes scattered all over the airfield. Two A-10s fit in each HAS, stacked nose-to-tail.
The 511th squadron operated two main Ops buildings -- our normal, unhardened, peacetime building, seen here...
... and a hardened, bomb-resistant building where we would operate if things ever got ugly with the Soviets. (2015 photo.)
We also had a bar called the Pig Sty, inside this WWII-era Quonset hut. (This photo is from 2015, but it looked about the same in 1988.)
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