We asked the Air Force historian and Air Combat Command if the A-10 fleet achieved a “first-time-ever” milestone late last month when one Warthog, supporting Operation Odyssey Dawn, attacked two small Libyan ships that were indiscriminately firing upon merchant vessels in the Libyan port of Misurata. “While we know of no other recorded instance in which the A-10 was used to attack a maritime target, this is not something that could be officially verified,” Air Force spokesman Todd Spitler told the Daily Report in responding on behalf of the historian’s office. This also was the consensus among ACC officials whom command spokeswoman Capt. Shannon Collins queried on our behalf. “[T]o their recollection, the A-10s have never [before] attacked surface ships or other maritime targets,” she said.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. still “believes” in his mantra of “Accelerate Change or Lose”—and indicated the doctrinal changes it produced when he was Air Force Chief of Staff played a role in the service’s recent response to Iran’s aerial assault on Israel, he…