The Thunderbird Overlook near the south end of the Academy is home to two static display aircraft:  the Northrop T-38 Talon and the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt (aka the Warthog).  ----more----

This particular A-10 is amazing.  It is known as “The Chopper Popper.”  Flying this plane on February sixth, 1991, Captain Robert Swain, Class of ’79, scored the first ever air-to-air victory in an A-10, shooting down an Iraqi Bo 105C helicopter during combat operations over Iraq.  On September seventh, 2002, the A-10 was dedicated and took its place at the Overlook.  The A-10 is one of three static display aircraft at the Academy with an enemy aircraft kill.  Coincidentally, one of the others was also dedicated on September seventh, but eighteen years earlier.  I am talking about the B-52 at the north end of the base, which shot down a MiG on Christmas eve 1972.  But that’s a subject for a different Heritage Minute.

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