An Even Playing Field
The 47th FS tried very hard to even out any ‘home-team’ advantages that they and the New Orleans based 706th FS might have as regular customers at Claiborne. Col. Latta testified to the fairness of Hawgsmoke 2004: “This will probably be the most even-handed competition because none of the Hog pilots know the targets ahead of time. In the first Hawgsmoke we tried to do that but you typically have a home team advantage, and even when we tried to hide the targets they were pretty obvious. In the second Hawgsmoke a lot of folks knew the target in one of the Range profiles. This time they’ve done a great job of keeping that secret so the tactical portion is going to be very difficult. " LtCol. Macaualay added: “Nobody but myself and the competition director know the whereabouts of either the CBU target or the Maverick targets. With the fixed conventional bombing targets, everyone got a chance to go out there and take a look on arrival. We’re trying to zero out all the home team advantages because to be honest that’s one of the things that we didn’t like about the last competition. We have an opportunity with the template that Cliff (Col. Latta) designed to tweak the competition. We like to train to the most difficult standard and this is what Hawgsmoke is all about. We present the pilots with some tactical problems and they have to go out there and solve them just as they would in combat. I think you’ll hear from the pilots that some of the tactical problems we present them with today and in training are probably more difficult than they actually experience in combat.”

Maj. Jim ‘Slick’ Travis was number-two in the 47th FS ‘Dogpatchers’ team, the first team on the range on competition day, he confirmed the level of difficulty designed into Hawgsmoke 2004: “The profile is very realistic, they had set up a CBU target where you have to go out not knowing where the target is going to be at launch. It’s a fixed target we don’t have on this range routinely; it’s a very tactical looking target, looks just like a tank. They put it right into a location where a tank would be and gave us envelopes with target info that were to be opened once we reached the targets. So you go out to the IP (Initial Point) and the competition director says: ‘Okay, open up envelope B’ and it has the instructions and coordinates for the target.”

	After the rains came the sunshine, unfortunately too late to save the flying competition. The Idaho Air Guard team prepares to deploy home to Boise. © Peter Greengrass

Hawgwash 2004
Unfortunately due to a series of storms crossing from eastern Texas there was little flying and no winners at Hawgsmoke 2004. April 30, the day set aside for the flying competition began with visibility of less than one mile and a cloud deck of 600 feet - well below peacetime training safety margins. With eighteen teams to cycle through the Claiborne Range at twenty-minute intervals the first team was to have arrived over the targets at 08:00. This slipped to 11:00 before the visibility improved, enabling five teams to fly before the weather deteriorated again with heavy thunderstorms and real ‘thunderbolts’ rolling in. No more flying could take place so the organisers drew up a contingency plan to conclude the competition the following day. The following day turned out to be even worse with torrential rain and lightning throughout the day. LtCol. Macaulay had to concede defeat to Mother Nature, whose roar on this occasion was louder than the A-10’s: “We had weather contingencies for the competition, all the way down to the minimums allowed for peacetime training of a 1500’ ceiling and 3 miles of visibility. Unfortunately, the ‘Perfect Storm’ that engulfed Alexandria on 30 April and 1 May did not even allow for the flat show. It’s unfortunate that all the teams didn’t get to test themselves against the tactical problems we presented, because the five teams that did unanimously agreed they were realistic, yet very challenging.”

At the rather subdued closing speech and dinner it was generally felt that ‘Hawgwash’ 2004, as it had now been dubbed, was a success despite the weather: “This was due to the people we have flying, fixing and supporting the A-10. Not forgetting the support of England Airpark and the Alexandria community who made a huge impact on the success of the gathering.” according to LtCol. Macaulay, who also praised the supreme efforts made by the 180 support personnel of the 717th AMS (Aircraft Maintenance Squadron) led by CMSgt Bob Murray. The Hog community reunion was a huge success, as was the fantastic support by the local sponsors and England Airpark manager Scott Gammel’. The perfect template is in place for Hawgsmoke 2006, although with no outright winning team the location and host are yet to be decided.