Combat Story (Ep 10): Vince "Snapper" Sherer Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II "Warthog" Fighter Pilot
About This Episode
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Vince “Snapper” Sherer is a retired Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt “Warthog” fighter pilot. Over a 20 year career, he flew 300 combat missions and logged 1,300 combat flight hours in the A-10 and MC-12 across four deployments to Afghanistan.
Vince supported troops in contact at danger close range, at times without a wingman, over a decade of evolving combat and technological change. He’s the personification of the A-10 pilot and gives an inside look at what combat felt like from the cockpit.
Chapters
- 0:00Intro.
- 1:57Call sign “Snapper” comes from the Sensitive New Age Pilot moniker (Urban Dictionary link).
- 4:57The inspiration to fly came from time with a sibling and watching Top Gun.
- 7:02A key tragic and defining moment with a significant accident in the family.
- 10:32Flying for the Navy or Air Force?
- 12:22Competition and path to get from college into the aircraft you want.
- 22:17Stereotype of the “Hawg” (A-10) pilots, F-16s, F-15s, etc.
- 24:20Hardest part of his Air Force career at Sheppard AFB.
- 27:22First flight in the A-10. “The better your preparation, the less your anxiety.”
- 31:50T-38 second hardest aircraft to land in the Air Force (hardest is the U-2).
- 33:24How to do a checkride in a single-seat aircraft?
- 36:52First combat flight was September 2005 in Afghanistan in a Squadron led by now Senator Martha McSally.
- 40:40Normal weapons load in combat on an A-10.
- 42:49A standard engagement planning and execution.
- 51:22First engagement while supporting a convoy that hit an IED in southern Afghanistan in Winter 2005.
- 57:01Engagement in 2014 on fourth deployment supporting Wing Staff at Bagram AFB and flying with 303rd Fighter Squadron from Kansas City.
- 1:01:01Near fratricide incident in combat until something didn’t feel right.
- 1:07:11Carrying an American flag on each flight.
- 1:09:34Being in a unit with the first female A-10 Fighter Squadron Commander who flew in combat (Martha McSally).
- 1:13:32Advice on when to start flying in your life.
- 1:15:21Would you do it again?
- 1:16:39A great story about an A-10, a photograph, and the “south end of an unneutered bulldog.”
- 1:19:51“I was so fired up that I got to go fly a jet again one more time.”
