May be apocryphal but I remember a story from the 80s where a reserve colonel in an A-10 took on a F-15 in air-to-air and won -- cocky young pilot in his Eagle hadn't reckoned on the Warthog's ability to turn. It's an amazing airframe; what we need is a real replacement that builds on its strengths, not trying to substitute a regular jet for its role. I thought the AF was ridiculous when they tried to retire it in the 90s and claimed they could use F-16s to do the CAS/TAS job. Also, takes real cojones to volunteer for a job whose estimated lifespan was 10 minutes in combat under a Fulda Gap scenario.