Out of all of the A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft in the U.S. Air Force’s fleet, an A-10 Warthog with the serial number 81-994 may be among the most unique for one simple reason: it’s the only aircraft we know of to sport kill markings for taking out a cow downrange.
Assigned to the Red Devils of the 107th Fighter Squadron, 127th Wing of the Michigan Air National Guard at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, the A-10 in question has been spotted in official Air Force photos sporting a yellow kill marking for a cow alongside those for ordnance released.
The cow kill marking goes back at least to 2017 when the 107th A-10’s red-and-green commemorative WWII paint job was rolled out to honor the 100th anniversary of the Red Devils. In 2018, the cow-killing A-10 even made an appearance at a commemorative flight over the beaches of Normandy on the 74th anniversary of the D-Day invasion.
[Our A-6E’s had camels and kangaroos on them for birds that had done deployments to those far-flung places (Somalia for the first Bright Star and Australia), in addition to the bats that were our squadron mascot. Hubs’ 53E birds had howling wolf heads for symbols, being “The Wolfpack.” The stencils could, and were, used in retaliatory strikes against rival squadrons or installations, and I’ve been a party to some awesome ones. Esprit de corps. I love these stories. ~ Beege]
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