you'll be seeing the beloved Warthogs in action soon along with a host of other tactical aircraft. Before we had an airfield in Afghanistan, the targets were outside the effective range of Hogs and several other planes. Like I've said before, the F-15E Strike Eagles had to fly all the way from Kuwait to hit their targets. An A-10 can use aerial refueling (if it can keep up with the tankers) but that makes for a long mission and low sortie rate. Remember, the A-10 is the only combat plane in the Air Force inventory where the pilots have to worry about bird strikes from the rear.

The Marines have captured an airfield close to the FEBA. Once operational, that field can serve as a base of operations for their AH-1Ws, AV-8Bs, Army AH-1Ds, and of course F-16s, F/A-18s and A-10s. If the Taliban thinks they've been heavily bombed to date, well, they ain't seen nothing yet. It sure sucks to be them right now.