Maryland Air National Guard flying mission ends despite fight to preserve it

Sam Janesch, The Baltimore Sun on Sep 23, 2025

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The sun set on the flying operations of the Maryland Air National Guard on Tuesday, marking the official end of the state’s longtime flying mission and of a nearly two-year stint in which officials tried to preserve it.

In an airplane hangar at Warfield Air National Guard Base in Middle River, hundreds of uniformed servicemembers and officials stood in front of the remaining pair of A-10 Thunderbolt II fighter jets before they were set to transfer later in the day.

The “inactivation” ceremony was frustrating, but also a time to celebrate the unit’s work in Maryland and abroad, Gov. Wes Moore said.

“This is a moment of anger and frustration,” said Moore, an Army veteran who deployed to Afghanistan. “But it’s also a moment of deep pride of the work that you all did, because no matter the darkness, no matter the danger, the Maryland Air National Guard was always ready, and always there.”

Officials last year announced that Maryland was set to lose its flying mission with the elimination of the 104th Fighter Squadron, a unit of the 175th Wing of the Maryland Air National Guard.

Moore and Maryland’s congressional delegation fought to preserve the mission and eventually secured an agreement in which the Air Force would have transferred the D.C. Air National Guard’s 121st Fighter Squadron to the Maryland Air National Guard. But that deal — set in late 2024 — fell apart after President Donald Trump took office in January.

The Maryland delegation continued to press Pete Hegseth, Trump’s secretary of defense who is now called the secretary of war. The divestment of the A-10 Thunderbolt II fighter jets at Martin State Airport, they said, would eliminate “an irreplaceable strategic asset.”

The inactivation now leaves Maryland as the only state without an air mission.

“There was a great effort to save the mission,” Adam Flasch, Moore’s deputy chief of staff for public safety and homeland security, said in an interview.

“But like any good servicemember, once the military leadership decides,” that’s the way it is, said Flasch, a retired U.S. Army brigadier general. He added that the state maintains a close working relationship with military leaders and has had “productive conversations” about long-term solutions. In the meantime, the base at Martin State Airport location will work on cyber efforts and be ready to mobilize for flights if needed, he said.

The divesting of the 21 jets began in March. In May, two aircraft were sent to Michigan at the Selfridge Air National Guard Base with the rest slated to be divested by September.

The final two — which symbolically had tail numbers of 175 and 104 — were staged as the backdrop on Tuesday, dramatically appearing when the hangar doors opened in the middle of the ceremony.

Elected officials, National Guard members and their families lingered afterward to take photos with the jets before they were sent to Michigan. Others had been decommissioned or prepared for display.

Major Gen. Janeen Birckhead described the jet as “an extraordinary piece of iron” that Maryland servicemembers have used to assist military efforts around the globe for four decades — from Cold War air defense and Gulf War operations to relief missions in Somalia and post-9/11 deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. The 104th Squadron completed nine combat deployments in total over the last two decades.

“As we think about the last flight, we can be sad, and we can be mad. But let’s be honest,” Birckhead told the servicemembers. “If you’ve lost a job you trained for and that you sweated for, the job that your families worked for, built their lives around, the job that employers stretched to get you out on the fight line, the job that really wraps your identity — there’s nothing I can say to remove that state. We can mourn the change, and we will do that together. Today though, we can also celebrate with gratitude that you and your teammates created something that was great.”

Moore, in his speech, did not directly address the Trump administration’s decision to eliminate the flying mission or not transfer the jets from Washington, D.C., as originally planned. He instead thanked the National Guard members in attendance and recalled his own experience, saying ground soldiers like him “never forget the sound” of A-10s flying above.

“Even as we embark on the end of one chapter, we remember that this next chapter is our story,” Moore said. “The mission continues.”

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