104th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron A-10C Operation Iraqi Freedom Patch

On September 19, 2007, a Maryland Air National Guard A-10C over Iraq dropped two GBU-38 JDAMs on an insurgent target, and the upgraded Warthog had its first combat ordnance on the books. The jets belonged to the 104th Fighter Squadron of the 175th Wing, deployed that September as the 104th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron. The A-10C was the Precision Engagement version of the A-10 Thunderbolt II, and the 104th was one of the first two squadrons fully equipped with it. The JDAM strike took out the building without damaging the structures around it. That is the moment FIRST IN COMBAT on this patch refers to.

The 104th goes back to June 29, 1921, when it was federally recognized as the 104th Observation Squadron. In 1979 the 175th became the first Air National Guard unit to receive the A-10A, with new jets delivered from the factory in Hagerstown, Maryland. Home for the 104th Fighter Squadron was Warfield Air National Guard Base at Martin State Airport in Middle River. Before the A-10C deployment, the 104th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron spent January to June 2003 at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, flying strikes against Taliban and al Qaeda forces during Operation Enduring Freedom. The A-10C work in 2007 put the Guard out front again, with Lt. Col. Kevin Campbell having led the Air National Guard's testing of the upgrade.

This is a shield-shaped patch, 3.5 inches wide by 4 inches tall, with a merrowed edge and a sew-on backing. A dark brown band across the top carries A-10C in big yellow letters with FIRST IN COMBAT beneath. On the tan field, 104TH and EFS sit on either side of a gray A-10 banking across a darker outline of Iraq. Below the jet is the squadron's Baltimore oriole with a boxing glove and a yellow lightning bolt, the oriole being Maryland's state bird. OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM arcs along the bottom, and the whole design stays in desert browns and tans.

The Fightin' O's flew the A-10 from 1979 until the last two jets, 79-0175 and 79-0104, left Warfield on September 23, 2025, the day the squadron was inactivated. That is more than four decades of Warthogs flown by Marylanders who held civilian jobs and still answered every deployment. One retired jet, 79-0087, is now at the Hagerstown Aviation Museum, close to where the first ones were built. The 2007 deployment is the chapter that put the 104th's name on a first in A-10 history. Crew chiefs, armorers and pilots who were on that rotation wore this patch.

Sew it on a flight jacket or a squadron reunion vest, or put it in a shadow box with your 175th Wing and A-10 Thunderbolt II patches. It makes a good gift for a Maryland Guardsman who deployed with the 104th, or for anyone who worked on Hogs at Warfield. A desert patch for the squadron that took the A-10C to war first.