The Morning Briefing: Tough Luck, Haters — The Glorious Warthog Gets Another Reprieve

Top O' the Briefing

Happy Tuesday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. The Sine Qua Non Sequitur is spending the day teaching select foreigners how to properly treat something called, "Coachella Wrist."

This probably won't be a super long "Top 'O the Briefing," but it will be a happy one. We can all use a little happiness from time to time, even noted darker personality types like myself. We take our victories where we can get them these days, and this news has brought a lot of smiles to Tucson. More on that in a moment.

Despite the best efforts of its detractors to put it out to pasture, one of the greatest jets in the history of America's air arsenal will not be going anywhere just yet. This is from my friend and RedState colleague Ward Clark:

Every grunt's favorite Cold War leftover piece of close air support, it seems, is getting a few more years of active service. On Monday, the Secretary of the Air Force announced, with a nod to the Secretary of War, that the great A-10 Thunderbolt II, better known as the Warthog, will have its service life extended until at least 2030.

The A-10 has been a fixture in the Tucson sky since the mid-1970s. Even I was young then. When they take off from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base they fly right over my neighborhood. I get a great view of them when they are landing too, and could sit outside and watch them all day.

There is a lot of interesting history that goes with every iteration of the A-10. I mentioned its detractors, but I have honestly never met any of them in person. It would appear that they're mostly high-ranking Air Force officials in the Pentagon. They must be very powerful, though, because — and this is only a slight exaggeration — it seems like someone has been trying to get the A-10s mothballed ever since the first one was delivered to an Air Force base.

It's ground fighters from the Army and Marine Corps. who love having the Warthogs around. As my Army veteran friend Ward said at the top of his post, it's "every grunt's favorite." The A-10s got their first big second wind during Desert Storm, when they proved very efficient at blowing up tanks and jihadis. Every soldier and marine I've met who fought in Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom, or Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan has nothing but the highest of praise for the A-10s. They should get in a room with those faceless Air Force brass Warthog haters.

The A-10s were officially retired a couple of years ago. The Air Force had already started moving some of them over to the massive military plane resting place here in Tucson known as "The Boneyard." Then Operation Epic Fury came along. Here's more from Ward's piece:

The A-10 is operating with impunity in Iranian airspace right now, and the 'Hog drivers have had great success in hunting down and disassembling the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' annoying little speedboats.
2030, granted, isn't all that far away. And who knows what the geopolitical situation will be then? But in any war, there may well still be a use for a flying 30mm rotary cannon that keeps its pilot in a titanium bathtub.

The Warthogs' ability to "BRRRT" the terrorist boats has given them a second second wind now. The reprieve is a short one, as Ward mentions, but I've been watching the Air Force's "Let's kill the A-10" dance for a very long time. Warthog is an extremely good nickname — it is an ugly beast of a plane — but given the number of lives this thing has had, "Black Cat" may have been more apropos. I just hope they keep cheating The Boneyard and I can watch them for a long time.

For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of seeing the Warthog and its famous (infamous if you're a jihadi) "BRRRT" in action, I leave you with this.

If you hear the BRRRT... you weren't the target. pic.twitter.com/QyTQ9dbe3S
— A-10 Thunderbolt II "Warthog" (@A10TheHog) April 19, 2026

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The Mailbag of Magnificence

We'll start with this from Morning Briefing stalwart Paul in Indiana:

I'm confused by these headlines "Iranians again close the Strait of Hormuz" How can this be? According to the Trump Administration the Iranians have no military. I thought we destroyed their Navy and Air Force??? We have naval dominance and a blockade, how can they close anything?

I don't write a lot about international affairs because they aren't my area of expertise; I'm a domestic policy guy. As the resident media bias maven, I have noticed something peculiar. There seem to be two completely different wars in Iran right now: the one that is actually being fought there, and the one that The New York Times and The Washington Post are writing about.

Friend of the Briefing Charlotte writes:

Dear Kruiser-Man, I am in agreement on you opinion of The Atlantic. My late, very conservative husband and I used to subscribe to The Atlantic back in the late 80s. It was worth reading then. Now? Not so much. That same husband was also a psychiatrist, so I am quite familiar with the definition of insanity. I still follow the news on weekends, but I'm retired, so I must not need the reprieve the way you do. Enjoy your coma.

It really is disappointing that a publication/organization that did some quality work for a very long time decided to join more pedestrian media outlets in being consumed by Trump Derangement Syndrome. The Atlantic always tilted more left than right, but it wasn't all left. It was still readable when Megan McArdle was there, but she's been gone for 14 years.

That's it for today! Keep writing, please and thank you.

Everything Isn't Awful

I want to hit a happy hour where spider monkeys are hanging around.

The interaction between the spider monkey and the workers shows he's a regular at the snack bar 😂 pic.twitter.com/B06t7OE9tW
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) April 20, 2026

The Kruiser Kabana

Kabana Gallery

The Three Ages of Woman (1905) charts life's progression: an innocent sleeping infant; a radiant mother cradling new life; and finally, an exhausted and isolated elder. Klimt's stark treatment mirrors Freudian Vienna's preoccupation with mortality and decay. #artbots #klimt pic.twitter.com/rlfbEX5r23
— Gustav Klimt (@artistgklimt) April 20, 2026

Kabana Comedy/Tunes

There was a time in music, boys and girls, when one band could not have too many drums or keyboards on the stage.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
04/20/26

DAILY GUIDANCE AND PRESS SCHEDULE FOR
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