![Warthog 087 returns to Hagerstown, Maryland. [Credit: Austin Colby]](https://www.flyingmag.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/A-10-Austin-Colby-Large.jpeg)
Homecomings tend to be emotional, and that certainly was the case last week at Hagerstown Regional Airport (KHGR) in Maryland when an A-10C, tail number 79-0087, made its final flight, returning to the place where it was built.
The aircraft rolled out of the Fairchild Republic factory in 1979.
This A-10 was combat-flown as part of the 175th Wing of the Maryland Air National Guard (ANG) in Iraq and Afghanistan. During these conflicts the Fairchild A-10 gained a reputation for providing effective and devastating close air support. Known as a “flying tank,” it also earned the nickname “Warthog” for being tough and aggressive and some suggesting it is aesthetically challenged like its animal counterpart.
But as the Maryland ANG is now evolving into a cybersecurity unit, the aircraft is no longer a necessary asset. The decision was made to donate the attack jet to the Hagerstown Aviation Museum, located at KHGR, for permanent display.
![The AC-10 returning to Hagerstown, Maryland, received a hero's welcome from the crowd in attendance. [Credit: Tom Riford]](https://www.flyingmag.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/Hagerstown-hero-welcome-1024x768.jpg)
According to Tom Riford, museum board member and vice president of Rider Jet Center in Hagerstown, hundreds of people, many of them former employees of Republic Aircraft, were on hand to welcome the Warthog home. Fairchild Republic Aircraft is celebrating its 100th anniversary.
John Seburn, president of the Hagerstown Aviation Museum, noted that between 1976 and 1984, some 700 A-10s were produced by the Fairchild Republic factory in Hagerstown.
Major “Snarf” Taylor Price was the pilot on the final flight. He made three low passes to the delight of the crowd, then landed, greeted by a water cannon salute from fire trucks.
Price’s ground crew gathered around the plane for the final shutdown, and he was greeted by his wife, Emily, and their 2-and-a-half-year-old daughter.
The handover ceremony included speeches from state and local dignitaries and the state of Maryland’s Department of Veterans & Military Families. Seburn greeted Price with a handshake to thank him for bringing the A-10 home.
“The Fairchild employees gathered had a group photo around the plane,” said Riford. “It was entirely an emotional moment. I saw grown men crying.”
The aircraft will be “demilled” and added to the museum’s collection of Fairchild Republic aircraft, which is the largest museum-owned collection of Fairchilds in existence.
