When was the A-10 warthog built?

The first a-10 flew in April of 1972 There where a total of 751 aircraft built to date . The a-10 was was to be decommissioned in the mid 80s but was kept in active service till today . The planes original mission was to kill vast fleets of soviet tanks during a soviet invasion of Europe.(witch never happened) The Warthawg was saved from being mothballed and many where even brought back from the boneyard in the 90's to help in killing Iraq's tanks and other ground targets after the invasion of Kuwait .the A-10 performed very well and was found to have one of the highest rates of survival when damaged ever (many coming back with large sections of wing or complete engine's blown off