Some of you may know the story of Kim “KC” Campbell and how she landed her A-10 thunderbolt II “Warthog“, in manual reversion, after taking damage over Baghdad during Operation Iraqi Freedom but, how many of you know the “rest of the story” and  what happen to the aircraft which so fatefully brought her home? After the interviews were given, photos taken, and everyone went back to the business of war, what did happen to aircraft 81-0987?  

During Operation Iraqi Freedom I was still serving as the HQ/ACC A-10 Maintenance Liaison at Hill AFB Utah when I revived a call from a “Chief” at the Air National Guard Headquarters on a Friday afternoon. It was concerning an Operation Iraqi Freedom battle damaged A-10, and a request from the deployed commander to pull parts off the jet to fix others broken jets in theater. This practice is call cannibalization or, canning for short. The only way a unit is allowed to can off a battle damaged aircraft is with the  permission of the A-10 System Program Office Director (SPD) or Air Staff. 

I knew the aircraft the chief was talking about because I had received the damage report a day or two pry. The chief was calling me because he wanted to explain the reasons the unit wanted to cann off this jet in the hope it would smooth the way for the SPD to give the unit the OK to cann some much needed parts. We were talking on an unsecured phone, during war time, so at no time was the tail number or unit mentioned. The Guard only had one aircraft damaged so we both knew which aircraft we were talking about. Why do I tell you this, you’ll see in a minute.

I told the chief I would talk to the SPD and explain the situation and see how he felt about the matter. I caught the SPD a few minutes later going into his office and asked if we could speak about a battle damaged aircraft in Kuwait, he said sure come on in. I told him want the chief had told me about the damaged aircraft and what the deployed commander wanted to do. We talked a while about different options and came to the conclusion that as long as they didn't’t pull parts from the damaged area (right engine) it would be OK. The SPD did request an email from the Guard asking for permission to cann off this aircraft.

I called the chief back and told him what the SPD had said and he stated I would have an email within a few minutes. Now remember, we still had not spoken the aircraft’s tail number over the phone and when I got the email from the chief it didn’t state the tail number either. After all, as I stated before, we all knew which aircraft we were talking about. I forwarded the email to the SPD and received a response back within a minute or two. I will never forget what he said, his words were…

“They have my permission to gut and rape her!”

Short and to the point to say the least! I sent this along to the chief and forgot about the matter little knowing it would come back to haunt me, for the next year and a half!

Before I move on let me tell you the aircraft we were talking about in the first place was a Battle Creek jet tail number 80-0258 which had taken damage to the right engine. The next thing I knew I was being asked about an aircraft which had become famous when Capt. Kim “KC” Campbell landed its shot-up carcass back at Al-Jabber Air Base Kuwait, after being riddled with bullets on a mission over Baghdad. This aircraft, 81-0987, I only knew from news reports but, I was being asking about parts which had been canned off her.

When I first started getting questions on 987 I thought they may have mixed it up with 258 but after getting question, after question, after question, it became apparent something else was going on here. After doing some checking I found that indeed 987 had been used as a cann bird and the SPDs (and my) email had something to do with it.

To make a long story short, the deployed commander had used our email as authorization to cann off 987 because of the lack of a tail number on the email itself! I don’t know what happen over there but I do know 258 was fixed within a few days and the repairs on 987 stopped. Before all was said and done 987 was gutted and raped…now where have you heard that before? The war ended shortly after (direct action anyway) and units started to rotate back home. Well, guess what, 987 couldn’t fly home because the damaged was not fixed and she was missing a number of parts, the questions started again….

As I understand it Air Staff was asking how this happen, and who gave the authorization to cann off such a heavily damaged aircraft. We (HQ/ACC and the SPO) also had to figure-out how to get the old girl home while trying to explain what happen in the first place. It came down to having her boxed and shipped, on a slow boat I might add, back home. The wings and tail were taken apart and loaded on trucks to be take to port.

The aircraft was then taken to the AMARC facility outside Tucson Arizona and placed in the desert until “we” could figure-out what to do with her. Air Staff wanted the aircraft repaired but at one time we estimated it would cost in the range of $3,000,000 (3 Million)  to fix the damage and replace all the parts on her.

One day I was asked to go to central-receiving and look at some parts which came off 987 which had been shipped back for possible use. What I found was a couple of large boxes filled with parts and components. The parts looked like they had been through hell and back and where covered with sand, there was no way we could use any of them.  

Inter the Hog-up, Service Life Extension Program (SLEP1), and the recertification of the A-10 airframe. Between these three programs (mainly recertification) “we”, the A-10 community, needed an aircraft to have torn-down and inspected to determine the damages inside the airframe and what it will take to keep her flying another 8,000 flight hours or until the projected 2028 retirement date.

HQ/ACC and the A-10 SPO had been planning for some time to use a jet from AMARC for this purpose. The problem with this had always been the low flight hours on the jets at AMARC, all less than 3,500 hours. We didn’t know how the low airframe aircrafts damage would compare to the fleet which were quickly reaching 8,000 hours. We thought we had the perfect plan…use 987 with over 8,000 real world flight hours and, we could get battle damage data from it to boot...perfect!          

Well Air Staff dug-in their heals and refused to allow ACC to use 987 in this way, they wanted the jet fixed, period!!  O’ by the way, tell me again how it got canned to death without our permission? I would get a call from someone in either ACC or Air Staff asking this question about once a week. I would tell my story again and again hoping it would be the last time but, it never seemed to be.

During this time the SPD retired and I put my paperwork in to retire also. A few months before I did retire I got another phone call from ACC/DRA10 after a long silence on this subject. Joe, could you please tell me the story again of how 987 became a cann jet? I said I will do better than that, I will send you the email that started this whole thing along with a explanation of the events surrounding it. This way I would not have to keeping telling the story again and again, you (HQ/ACC) can do what you want with the email, and that’s what I did. I found out later the matter had made it to Pentagon level and a certain master sergeant and Col‘s. Name was being thrown around quite a bit!

After all was said and done the SPD retired, I retired, and Air Staff agreed to allow 987 to be used in the recertification process.  I guess if it came down to it the two people most responsible for 987, the SPD and myself, were either retired, or would do so shortly, so what would Air Staff gain by keep pushing the matter?

The Fuselage is in New York State being torn down and inspected (2005). The wing is scheduled to have the same process done to it sometime this year. Although  81-0987 will never fly again her airframe will be used to allow the rest of the A-10 fleet to be recertified and continue to fly… well into the future! 


I guess I’m partly responable for the A-10 fleet dropping by one but I believe the parts used off her when to good use during the war. I also believe by using her airframe we will get better data on the health of the fleet and can build a better road-map to keep them flying into the future. Now you know “the rest of the story”! 

Notes: The “Chief” who started the whole mess (thanks Bill) also retired. A friend of my at AMARC wanted me to have a little memento so he make sure I got the cockpit radio-call placard.