Jack of Harts

The new Republic of Texas spent a great deal of money rebuilding their A-10 Thunderbolts salvaged at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base from the landing gear up. Texas kept them flying until the end of the century, by which time most estimates suggested few, if any, original parts or pieces survived in any of the operational aircraft. Further revolutions in aerospace technology, and the exploration of the solar system, placed more emphasis on space-capable craft, so the last of the A-10s made one last flight to Davis-Monthan’s Boneyard for a second time. Then the development of hyperspace engines made colonizing the universe a possibility and humanity needed cheap aircraft to secure their colonies again. So Davis-Monthan Spacebase dusted off the A-10s once more and supervised new production runs that sent them to colonies all over Western Alliance space.

It should be noted that Texas maintained a permanent ground presence at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base throughout the Drug Wars and beyond. They repaired the runways and continued the work of refurbishing as many functional aircraft as they could find deep into the Cybernetic Wars. More resilient to Rogue AI hacks, refurbished craft coming from the Boneyard made up the majority of craft deployed against that threat, and many military historians point to them as one of the reasons we survived at all. And though the relentless salvage missions came to an end in time, the Republic of Texas maintained control of the base in the years and decades that followed. It was a good place to retired their aircraft for future emergencies, after all. And as the exploration of the solar system and the stars beyond become more commonplace, Davis-Monthan Spacebase served as one of the Republic’s primary launching and landing sites. It even served its original purpose when the Shang attacked us, and technicians swarmed all over the Boneyard looking for craft they could refurbish for use against our new enemy. And so Davis-Monthan continues to protect humanity even now.

Davis-Monthan Air Force Base was most famously the home of the United States Air Force Boneyard, the place where old aircraft took their final flight before retirement. They were officially a ready reserve of aircraft against a future emergency, but the Air Force often stripped them of spare parts to keep other aircraft operating. Especially during periods of budget cuts when various peace dividends and new social contracts demanded that politicians take money from the military to pay for far more worthy social spending. It was those budget cuts that eventually closed Davis-Monthan a decade before the Second Great Depression. The squadrons that called it home were moved or retired with the base, but the Boneyard remained. Davis-Monthan remained an official Air Base, patrolled by local security consultants, but every aircraft that landed there was never meant to take off again. They were the final reserve of a United States Air Force slowly losing prestige, funding, and power to the far sexier and younger Space Force.