High-Time Hog Driver

Since 1988, Lt. Col. John "Karl" Marks has been flying the A-10. With over 7,000 hours and counting in the brutish fighter, Marks is the highest time Hog driver in Air Force history. (Photo by Ted Carlson/ Fotodynamics.com)

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Inside the cockpit with Lt. Col. John Marks, the Air Force’s most experienced A-10 pilot Ten thousand feet above an area near the city of Ghazni in southeastern Afghanistan, Lt. Col. John Marks—call sign “Karl”—adjusted the zoom for the infrared sensor in the Litening pod on his right wing. Peering at the infrared image on the right-hand multi-function display in his instrument panel, he noticed something different about the groups of people the sensor had...

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