Earning the Spaatz Trophy for being the top Air National Guard flying unit only a month ago, the 104th Fighter Squadron has now officially ceased operations.

On Sept. 22, 2025, joined at the Hagerstown Regional Airport by hundreds of former Fairchild Republic employees, former test pilots, 175th Wing personnel, and family and fans, the museum held a retirement celebration for the Maryland Air National Guard’s A-10C Thunderbolt II 79-0087, one of only three remaining at the unit. The bittersweet homecoming saw the A-10, piloted by Major Taylor “Snarf” Price, flying around the state of Maryland one final time. It then performed multiple passes over the event’s crowd before landing and being met with a water cannon salute by the airport fire department.

After taxiing by and shutting down the engines one final time, Maj. Price and -087’s crew chiefs, Tech. Sgt. Daniel Rodriguez and Airman First Class Matthew McCullough, signed the aircraft and took part in a ceremony that symbolically handed the airplane over to the museum. The aircraft will now be demilitarized before being placed on display in the museum alongside its Fairchild relatives.

Crowds watch as the museum’s A-10C Thunderbolt II lands for the final time at the Hagerstown Regional Airport. (Image credit: Andrew Stover / Jet A Aviation on Flickr)

The Hagerstown Aviation Museum

Now residing on the same factory floors that built everything from the PT-19 and C-119 to the A-10 and C-123, the Hagerstown Aviation Museum was only recently a small collection of airplanes outside in the elements. In 2020, the museum moved into the Fairchild Flight Test Hangar, better known as the “dome hangar,” which opened in 1943. The museum now has their sights set on purchasing the neighboring hangar and are looking to raise an additional $3 million (USD) for the purchase.

A-10C 79-0087 makes one final pass over the event crowd before retirement. (Image credit: Andrew Stover / Jet A Aviation on Flickr)

The museum’s collection now includes many Fairchild, Fairchild Republic, and other manufacturer’s airplanes including a C-119 Flying Boxcar (the namesake of the local baseball team), F-27 Friendship, C-82 Packet, RC-26 Condor, and one of only two experimental Fairchild XNQ trainers. The museum had long been asked the question of when they’d get an A-10, and after plenty of paperwork and waiting, they finally brought 79-0087 home. The museum also maintains three airworthy PT-19s, a PT-26, and a UC-61 that are available for rides.

The museum’s new centerpiece aircraft taxies under a water cannon salute. (Image credit: Andrew Stover / Jet A Aviation on Flickr)

The museum has marked 2025 by celebrating Fairchild’s 100th anniversary. An event was held last weekend with living history displays, PT-19 and UC-61 rides, a big band performance and dance, and a visit by A-10C 79-0087. Fairchild itself was founded by Sherman Fairchild in Farmingdale, New York, in 1925 before moving to Hagerstown, Maryland in 1931. The factory operated until 1984.

One last look at the “Warthog” at the end of the event. (Image credit: Andrew Stover / Jet A Aviation on Flickr)

The 104th Fighter Squadron

The Maryland Air National Guard’s only flying squadron, the “Fightin’ O’s” of the 104th Fighter Squadron trace their lineage back to 1921 and their operation of the venerable Curtiss JN-4 “Jenny.” The squadron was disbanded during World War II and its members spread throughout other bomber and reconnaissance units.

A Maryland ANG A-10C during a low altitude flight. (Image credit: Andrew Kelly)

After World War II, the 104th was refounded and equipped with F-47 Thunderbolts. They’d go on to fly the F-51 Mustang, F-86 Sabre, and A-37 Dragonfly before being equipped with the Maryland-built A-10A Thunderbolt II in 1979. The 104th would deploy several times in support of the Global War on Terrorism to Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere.

A Maryland ANG A-10C maneuvers aggressively during a training flight. (Image credit: Andrew Kelly)

The 104th Fighter Squadron was the first to take the newly-upgraded A-10C into combat when they deployed to Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, in 2007. The unit formerly shared its home base of Warfield Air National Guard Base (Martin State Airport) with the 135th Airlift Squadron’s fleet of C-130H Hercules airlifters.

A Maryland ANG A-10C fires the GAU-8 30mm Gatling gun. (Image credit: Andrew Kelly)

Now that both squadrons have been inactivated, the state of Maryland is now the only state without an Air National Guard flying mission. Baltimore’s 175th Wing will now transition to a cyber mission, just as Mansfield, Ohio’s 179th Airlift Wing did in 2023 after retiring their C-130H aircraft.

Two Maryland ANG A-10Cs maneuver at low altitude. (Image credit: Andrew Kelly)

The 175th Wing

The final two 104th Fighter Squadron A-10s retired on Sept. 23, after a squadron inactivation ceremony at Warfield Air National Guard Base, despite an earlier attempt at giving the DC Air National Guard’s F-16C/Ds to the unit in exchange for moving the Washington Commanders football team inside DC city limits. The ceremony also deactivated the 175th Maintenance Group and 175th Operation Group as neither will be required to operate the new cyber mission.

A Maryland ANG A-10C sits on the ramp under a night sky. (Image credit: Andrew Kelly)

At the close of the ceremony, tails 79-0104 and 79-0175, the Squadron and Wing flagships, departed Warfield ANGB for the final time. Both aircraft will be transferred to the Michigan Air National Guard’s 107th Fighter Squadron, which itself is scheduled to retire its A-10s soon. The Michigan Air National Guard is scheduled to receive brand-new F-15EX Eagle II fighters to complement their also-scheduled KC-46A Pegasus refuelers.

Meanwhile, the Thunderbolt II has stayed busy with routine deployments to the Middle East and elsewhere in the world. Even so, the two events in Maryland make it all-too-real that the era of the legendary A-10 “Warthog” is almost at an end.

Andrew Stover

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