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The Air National Guard lost a fighter unit Sept. 23 when the Maryland National Guard formally ended the A-10C Thunderbolt II mission at Warfield Air National Guard Base outside of Baltimore.
The last A-10 departed the base two days later. The 104th Fighter Squadron had operated the aircraft for 45 years.
The action was part of an Air Force plan announced in March 2024 to convert the 175th Wing from a dual-mission wing to an exclusively cyber wing.
It is also part of the service’s effort to divest the A-10, also known as the Warthog for its distinctive shape. Air Force officials believe the close-air-support specialist is too slow to survive the contested airspace of future fights.
Maryland is now the only state without an Air Guard flying mission.
Gov. Wes Moore, Maj. Gen. Janeen L. Birckhead, the adjutant general of Maryland, and Brig. Gen. Drew Dougherty, the assistant adjutant general-Air, spoke during the ceremony, which inactivated the 175th Operations Group, 175th Maintenance Group and all subordinate units.
The event occurred just a month after NGAUS presented the wing with the Spaatz Trophy as the top Air Guard flying unit in 2024 at the 147th General Conference & Exhibition in Milwaukee.
“In addition to the Air National Guard losing a fighter unit, the nation will lose some of the Air Force’s best pilots and maintainers at a time when such talent is in short supply and urgently needed,” said retired Maj. Gen. Francis M. McGinn, the NGAUS president.
The loss underscores the need to replace aging fighters at some of the Air Guard’s 24 remaining fighter units, which is why aircraft recapitalization is a NGAUS legislative priority.
The 104th Fighter Squadron was one of the oldest Air Guard flying units, tracing its heritage back more than 100 years.
Airmen of the 175th OG and 175th MG completed nine combat deployments in 25 years, including the last one in 2024.
Aircraft divestment at the 175th Wing began in March.
Some of its 21 aircraft went to units still flying the A-10, according to Maj. Benjamin Hughes, the Maryland Guard public affairs officer.
Two Air Guard units operate the A-10 today — Idaho’s 124th Fighter Wing and Michigan’s 127th Wing. Unlike the 175th Wing, both units are set to receive replacement aircraft to sustain their fighter missions after divesting the Warthog.
Other Maryland Air Guard A-10s went to museums in Delaware and Maryland. One is scheduled to be displayed at Camp Fretterd Military Reservation in Reisterstown, Maryland, Hughes said.
The others went to the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, better known as the aircraft “boneyard,” in Arizona, he added.
—By John Goheen
