TACP/JTACs use horse power to call in air strikes on Idaho mountains!

Idaho Air National Guard photo by Senior Airman Joseph R. Morgan, 07MAR2020.

It’s not Afghanistan! That’s an A-10C Thunderbolt-2 flying an air strike mission (simulated, whew) over the mountains just Northwest of Boise.

Idaho Air National Guard photo by Senior Airman Joseph R. Morgan, 07MAR2020.

There are some things hi-tech hasn’t been able to conquer, like getting your Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) into hard to reach terrain, like the mountains of Idaho.

Idaho Air National Guard photo by Senior Airman Joseph R. Morgan, 07MAR2020.

Between 09 February and 07 March 2020, the Idaho Air National Guard teamed up with the Gem County Sheriffs Department to call in A-10 air strikes near the town of Emmett, and conduct ‘backcountry’ ops against silly-vilians who’ve gone rebel. (because apparently our government expects future combat ops to take place within the U.S., read statement by Staff Sergeant below)

Idaho Air National Guard photo by Airman First Class Taylor Walker, 09FEB2020.

Idaho’s 124th Security Forces Squadron also joined the hunt for terrorists (possibly those damn terrorists from California).

Idaho Air National Guard photo by Airman First Class Taylor Walker, 09FEB2020.

It was the first training scenario for the 124th ASOS involving horses, so they had to get trained up first: “We’re learning how to properly pack people and equipment onto horses so that if we’re ever in a situation where we can’t use normal methods of transportation, we can use the animals to assist. TACP units are joint providers of precision strike capabilities, and as the premier precision strike provider we have to be able to get in and get out of anywhere in the world at any time.”-Staff Sergeant Neil Mooney, 124th Air Support Operations Squadron

Hunting rebel terrorists in the mountains around Emmett, Idaho. Idaho Air National Guard photo by Senior Airman Joseph R. Morgan, 07MAR2020.

For those citizens who have a fear the government will turn inward upon its own population (and the fact that Idaho was the scene of the infamous Ruby Ridge incident where, after citizens were killed, the government was proved wrong in court) Staff Sergeant Mooney made this ominous statement: “…there’s also a stateside potential that we could be called up with immediate response authority to go into the backcountry, and our members need to know how to get around with available livestock…”

Idaho Air National Guard photo by Senior Airman Joseph R. Morgan, 07MAR2020.

The guy in the above pic is wearing silly-vilian clothing because he is playing the part of domestic terrorist (opposition forces, OpFor) using the dreaded AR-15/CAR-15/M16/M4 Mass-shooter Plinker. Apparently Idahoans who don’t like the government are now domestic terrorists, or, maybe it’s a ‘foreign’ terrorist from California who heard how great Idaho was?