Shooter’s A-7
LTV A-7E Corsair II #401 at the Tillamook Air Museum in Oregon. The plane is serial number 158819 (USN) showing the 24 combat missions of CDR JR Shooter Sanders while the craft was assigned to VA-72 “Blue Hawks”, as part of Carrier Air Wing Three (CVW-3) aboard the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) during Operation Desert Storm, the last deployment of the aging A-7. The type was retired from the navy in May 1991, shortly after their return from Operation Desert Storm. By 1993 the Air National Guard had removed the last ones from US service and by 1998, other than a few static displays such as this one, the craft was extinct in the United States.
Squadron mate plane #412 over a Saudi fort in 1990, in brighter days nearly 25 years ago.