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Perhaps an item of ladder art interest. I'm pretty sure I painted the first A-10 ladder door art. I was an A10 IP at Davis-Monthan AFB in 1979 and the existing USAF case against nose art was that it damaged the integrity of the camo scheme(or would)...hence the idea to decorate the interior of the ladder door...closed in flight...visible on the deck!
I went to my then Squadron Comander, Lt Col Tony Veal, 333TFTS, with the proposal..ostensibly to get him to forward it up to the wing Commander for approval. He had a better idea...JUST GO DO IT ! The first one we did was for Lt Tom Surbridge (U. S. Navy Exchange Officer). His callsign was , appropriately SEAMAN...so we took a standing POPEYE character and depicted him firing a GAU-30 from the hip, bandoliers of ammo slung across his shoulders...it created quite a stir! Lt Col Joe Redden (later Lt Gen and Air University Commander) was a student in the A-10 upgrade course on his way to Alex (23TFW). We had served together at Myrtle Beach in A-7's and I showed him Tom's airplane....he liked the idea and when he got to Alex as 76TFS Commander he "required" every pilot in his squadron to come up with ladder art and the rest, as they say , is history...not long after that nose art started showing up on other USAF units ...a great return to a piece of aviation heritage we had managed to lose for too long!

Col R. C. Lemon

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On God's wing, to Heaven i fly.

WOW, nice story and thanks for posting it! I have your email addy and will get back to you through that.<img src=icon_smile_approve.gif border=0 align=middle><img src=icon_smile_approve.gif border=0 align=middle> I see in your profile you have been stationed at a number of A-10 bases. You might want to post in the main "Hog chat" area because we have a number of people who were at those bases, in those time-frames....never know, you might meet someone you knew "back in the day"! <img src=icon_smile_cool.gif border=0 align=middle>

Ugly But Well Hung

Edited by - Dice-man on Mar 08 2005 04:11 AM

Wow Dice sometimes they just fall at your doorstep. Did you ever hear back from Major Ed Somers concerning the Hawg in the bathtub patch ?

By this time tomorrow I shall have gained either a pearage or Westminster Abbey........Nelson

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YGBSM !

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Wow Dice sometimes they just fall at your doorstep. Did you ever hear back from Major Ed Somers concerning the Hawg in the bathtub patch ?

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Yep Hawg166, thankfully there are people out there just like you and I who love the A-10, and her history, and want to see it preserved. No I never heard back from the major.

Ugly But Well Hung