A-10 attack jets from Arkansas to train over Tucson this week

By Carol Ann Alaimo
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.26.2009

A squadron of A-10 attack jets from Arkansas will swoop into Tucson early this week.

Warplanes from the Air National Guard's 188th Fighter Wing of Fort Smith, Ark., will be in town the last week of July and first week of August to train for war in the desert.

The eight visiting jets are here as part of Operation Snowbird, a program based at Davis-Monthan Air Force base that hosts U.S. and allied pilots to prepare for upcoming deployments.

The A-10s will fly about 20 missions a day. Most will be during daylight hours, but there will be some night flights, said 1st Lt. Mary Pekas, a D-M spokeswoman.

D-M already flies dozens of its own A-10s as the nation's largest training base for the aircraft.

So even with several more in town, the impact on residents should be minimal, Pekas said.

Source

Note: Since May 14, 2009, the 188th Fighter Wing's public website www.arftsmn.ang.af.mil/home.asp (still outdated as of December 15, 2005, and only related to their former F-16Cs) is not more online. In this case, the only available official online source for 188th Fighter Wing news is the Arkansas National Guard's public website, on which some 188th Fighter Wing's base newspaper issues of "The Flying Razorbacks" were published. But unfortunately, since the April 2009 PDF issue, there's no further update. Excuse me, but that looks to me like a very bad job of 188th Fighter Wing Public Affairs, still ignoring the work of their wing's Warthog people...