Final Flight of the Bulldogs.
DAVIS-MONTHAN AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. 21 JUN 2024.
Photos by Senior Airman Vaughn Weber.
Story by Airman 1st Class Jhade Herrera and Senior Airman Vaughn Weber. Edited by R. Etzweiler.
The 354th Fighter Squadron and 354th Fighter
Generation Squadron have flown their last A-10C Thunderbolt II sortie.
The fini flight was flown by Lt. Col. Patrick "Meat" Chapman, commander of the 354th Fighter Squadron.
The inactivations of the 354th FS and 354th FGS come as their assigned A-10s are sent to The Boneyard. The base makes way for the planned arrival of the 492nd Special Operations Wing.
The Bulldogs last deployed to Al Dhafra Air Base from October 2023 to April 2024 in support of the first AFFORGEN cycle and were instrumental in developing attack leaders and deploying combat AirPower.
“Our most recent deployment was an operationally challenging one,” said Chapman. “I'm proud of the ops and the maintenance team for stepping up to meet those challenges, which ultimately protected coalition lives during a very turbulent time in the Middle East.”
As part of the inactivation, assignment teams will work with pilots and maintainers to determine new assignments based on what is best for each member’s career development, to include transitioning to different weapons systems.
[Note from the Curator: The mustache decal on the nose of this Warthawg is a Pedros (pararescue jumpers) designation. That means during its deployments it worked with ground forces during CSAR missions.]
