The Maryland Air National Guard (MD ANG) is the aerial militia of the U.S. state of Maryland, and a reserve component of the United States Air Force. It is, along with the Maryland Army National Guard, an element of the Maryland National Guard.
As state militia units, the units in the Maryland Air National Guard are not actively in the United States Air Force chain of command until federalized. They are under the jurisdiction of the governor of Maryland through the office of the Maryland Adjutant General unless they are federalized by order of the president of the United States. The Maryland Air National Guard is headquartered at Martin State Air National Guard Base in Middle River, Maryland, and its commander is Brigadier General Drew Dougherty.
Overview Under the "Total Force" concept, Maryland Air National Guard units are considered to be Air Reserve Components (ARC) of the United States Air Force (USAF). Maryland ANG units are trained and equipped by the Air Force and are operationally gained by a major command of the USAF if federalized. In addition, the Maryland Air National Guard forces are assigned to Air Expeditionary Forces and are subject to deployment tasking orders along with their active duty and Air Force Reserve counterparts in their assigned cycle deployment window.
Along with their federal reserve obligations, as state militia units the elements of the Maryland ANG are subject to being activated by order of the governor to provide protection of life and property, and preserve peace, order and public safety. State missions include disaster relief in times of earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and forest fires, search and rescue, protection of vital public services, and support to civil defense.
Components The Maryland Air National Guard consists of the following major components: Headquarters, Maryland Air National Guard Stationed at: Warfield Air National Guard Base, Middle RiverMinami, Col (Ret) Wayde: The Maryland Air National Guard: An Operational and Organizational History, 1921 to 2021. Elkridge, MD: Sword Tree Press. 2024. 175th Wing Established 1 October 1962 as the 175th Tactical Fighter Group Stationed at: Warfield Air National Guard Base, Middle River The 175th Wing is a composite unit, with a fighter operations group and a cyberspace operations group. The 175 WG has two active USAF gaining commands: the Air Combat Command for its fighter aircraft and for its cyber units, and United States Air Forces in Europe for its 235th Civil Engineer Flight.175th Wing website
History
The Maryland Air National Guard traces its origins to 29 June 1921. On that date the 104th Observation Squadron was federally recognized in Baltimore.Joseph H. Ewing: The 29th Infantry Division: A short history of a fighting division. Padacuh, Ky.: Turner Pub., 1992. It became the first post-World War I National Guard unit to be equipped with its own aircraft, 13 Curtiss JN-4 Jennies, which it flew until 1923. The unit was based at Logan Field in Baltimore.
The 104th, along with the 104th Photo Section, 164th Air Intelligence Section, and the Medical Detachment Air Service, was initially assigned as a component of 29th Division Air Service (later redesignated 29th Division Aviation), division aviation for the 29th Infantry Division. Their annual summer training encampments were at Langley Field, Virginia (until 1931) and Detrick Field, Maryland (1931–41). (Detrick Field, now Fort Detrick, was named for the squadron's flight surgeon, Captain Frederick Detrick. In addition to Jennies, the 104th flew a variety of other aircraft during the interwar period, including the TW-3, PT-1, O-2, O-11, O-17, and O-38. On Sept. 1, 1941, shortly before the U.S. entry into World War II, the unit was transferred to the 59th Observation Group (now the 59th Medical Wing) as part of a larger reorganization of the U.S. Army Air Forces.
World War II Along with the rest of the Maryland National Guard, the 104th was mobilized for federal service on 3 February 1941. The unit was initially based at Logan Field while facilities were upgraded at Detrick Field. During the war, the 104th flew anti-submarine patrols out of Atlantic City, N.J., in O-46s and O-47s and was awarded campaign credit for participation in the Anti-Submarine Campaign.William M. Armstrong: Baltimore in World War II. Arcadia Publishing, 2005. In late 1942, the unit was inactivated and its personnel transferred to the 517th Bombardment Squadron, later redesignated the 12th Anti-Submarine Squadron, at Langley Field, Va. The 12th was a separate unit and did not carry on the lineage of the 104th, which was reactivated as a training unit in Georgia in March 1943 but was not manned by Maryland Guardsmen at the time. In September 1943, the 12th was transferred to California and redesignated the 859th Bombardment Squadron. By this time most of its original National Guard members had been reassigned to other units as individual replacements, although a number of Maryland Guard members remained with the 859th and flew bombing missions over Europe.
Cold War
In 1946, the 104th was reactivated as the 104th Fighter Squadron at Baltimore Municipal Airport, equipped with P-47 Thunderbolt aircraft, later replaced by P-51 Mustangs. From 1955 to 1958, the unit was organized as a fighter-interceptor squadron and charged with defending the Baltimore-Washington area against possible Soviet bomber attack. The unit soon converted to F-86 Sabre, and in 1957 relocated to the Glenn L. Martin Company Airport, whose longer runway was necessary to support jet operations. The 104th was nominally assigned to the DC National Guard's 113th Fighter Group at the time.
Maryland gained a second flying unit – and its first group-level headquarters – in 1955 when the 135th Air Resupply Group was organized at Harbor Field. The 135th was one of a handful of Air Force special operations units in existence at the time. Equipped with Curtiss C-46 Commando transports and SA-16 Albatross seaplanes, its mission was the covert infiltration, resupply, and extraction of special forces. Redesignated as the 135th Air Commando Group in 1963 and then the 135th Special Operations Group in 1968, it was one of only five such units throughout the Air National Guard. It remained at Harbor Field until 1960, when it too relocated to the Martin Company Airport.
A second group headquarters was added in 1962, when the 175th Tactical Fighter Group was established in October. The 104th Tactical Fighter Squadron, which had heretofore operated as part of the DC National Guard's 113th Fighter Group, became a part of the new group.
The spring of 1968 brought considerable activity, with both the 135th and 175th being called out to help quell rioting in Baltimore following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and elements of the 175th being federalized and deployed to Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., in response to the USS Pueblo (AGER-2) in Korea. While mobilized, the unit conducted fighter ground attack training for Air Force pilots designated to be forward air controllers. The unit returned to Maryland and demobilized in December.
The Maryland Air National Guard endured multiple changes in designation and equipment during the 1970s. The 135th Special Operations Group switched first to a tactical air support role, where it flew forward air controller missions with O-2A Skymasters,Harvey, Maj. William A., "Maryland's Air Guard", USAF Fighter Weapons Review, USAF Fighter Weapons School, 57th Fighter Weapons Wing, Nellis AFB, Nevada, Summer 1973, page 37. then in 1977, assumed a new mission and was redesignated the 135th Tactical Airlift Group and equipped with the de Havilland C-7A Caribou. In 1980, the unit converted to the C-130 Hercules aircraft.
The 175th Tactical Fighter Group also changed aircraft to meet the evolving needs of the Air Force. In 1970, the 175th turned in its F-86s and received A-37 Dragonflies in their place. Nine years later, in 1979, the unit was re-equipped with brand new A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft from the Fairchild factory in Hagerstown, Maryland.
The military facilities at Martin State Airport were formally renamed the Warfield Air National Guard Base in honor of Maj Gen (Ret) Edwin Warfield III, former Adjutant General of Maryland, in 1982 and the base has since been known as Warfield Air National Guard Base within the state, although the U.S. Air Force does not officially recognize that name due to a policy that military facilities at dual-use airfields must use the same name as the civilian airport. The civilian portion of the field had been obtained by the state and renamed Martin State Airport in 1975.
Gulf War and Peacekeeping Despite the end of the Cold War, the Maryland Air National Guard remained heavily involved in operations around the world through the remainder of the century. During the build-up to the 1991 Persian Gulf War, a number of unit personnel were mobilized to fill support roles. Three Maryland C-130s were mobilized and deployed to Germany to “backfill” for aircraft being sent into the combat theater, while the unit's Mobile Aerial Port Flight was called up and sent to Dover Air Force Base, Del. The same year, the 175th won Gunsmoke, the U.S. Air Force Worldwide Gunnery Competition, earning recognition as the best fighter unit in the Air Force.
The 135th participated in humanitarian relief efforts in Somalia, peacekeeping and humanitarian relief in Bosnia, the U.S. intervention in Haiti, and enforcement of U.N. sanctions against Iraq during the 1990s. A-10s from the 175th were likewise kept busy patrolling the skies over Bosnia-Herzegovina as a part of the U.N./NATO task force and enforcing the “no-fly” zone over southern Iraq, where it was called upon to fly retaliatory strikes against Iraqi targets.
On 15 June 1996, the 135th was inactivated and the 175th Fighter Group was reorganized and redesignated as the 175th Wing. The two groups' subordinate squadrons were reassigned within the new wing. The 175th Wing, which carries on the lineage and honors of the 175th Fighter Group, is a composite organization with an Air Combat Command-gained fighter unit and a U.S. Air Forces in Europe-gained civil engineer flight, and a cyberspace warfare group.
The wing has been deeply involved in fielding the latest Air Force aircraft. In 1999, it dedicated its first C-130J, the latest and most advanced version of the venerable transport. The 135th played a major role in the operational test and evaluation of the aircraft, procedures development and evaluation, and was the first fully equipped C-130J unit in the U.S. Air Force. In 2011, the unit again transitioned aircraft, this time to the new C-27J Spartan.
The wing was also selected as the lead unit to convert to the new A-10C – the first A-10 aircraft in the U.S. Air Force to be modified for precision engagement. Beginning in 2006, wing personnel were deeply involved in the test and evaluation process and in September 2007, the 104th Fighter Squadron became the first unit to take the A-10C into combat, when it deployed to Iraq. The Maryland Air National Guard retired its last remaining A-10 aircraft on September 23, 2025, leaving Maryland as the only state in the nation without aircraft in its Air Guard component.
War on terror