The Blacksnakes · the 122nd Fighter Wing as a standing wing

1946 — present

Fighters in the Fort: The 122nd Fighter Wing, the Indiana Air National Guard wing stationed at Fort Wayne Air National Guard Base on the east side of Fort Wayne International Airport, traces its lineage to the 358th Fighter Group, activated 1 January 1943 and flown in combat with P-47 Thunderbolts — three Distinguished Unit Citations and the French Croix de Guerre stand in that group's honors. On 24 May 1946 the group was redesignated the 122nd Fighter Group and allotted to the Indiana Air National Guard, with extended federal recognition at Stout Field, Indianapolis, on 9 December 1946. The Fort Wayne thread begins at squadron level: the 163rd Fighter Squadron received federal recognition at Baer Field on 10 November 1947, flying F-51 Mustangs. The wing headquarters' own move to Baer Field is dated 1954 in the wing's public-affairs fact sheet, while the Air Force station list carries Baer Field as the wing's station from 1 May 1951, the Korean War federalization year — the three dates belong to three echelons (squadron recognition, wing station, headquarters transfer) and are stated here as the sources give them rather than merged. The base was designated Fort Wayne Air National Guard Station in 1991. The "Blacksnakes" nickname dates to the 1990s, drawn from "Mad" Anthony Wayne, whom the wing's own history says the Delaware called a blacksnake for the patience with which he waited to strike — a tradition the wing states as its own.

The wing has flown fighters only, and its aircraft sequence at Fort Wayne is the standing record of the base: F-51 Mustang; the first jets, F-80 Shooting Stars, in September 1954; F-86 Sabres eighteen months later; F-84F Thunderstreaks from January 1958, for thirteen years; F-100 Super Sabres from June 1971; F-4C Phantoms from 1978 and F-4Es from 1985; F-16C Fighting Falcons from 17 July 1991 to 2010; A-10C Thunderbolt IIs from 10 September 2010, a conversion completed six months early in June 2012; and then, under the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act signed 23 December 2022, a conversion back to the F-16 — twenty-one A-10s replaced by twenty-one F-16C Block 40 aircraft, the first of which arrived in October 2023. The Air National Guard announced on 27 April 2026 that the wing had completed the conversion and regained combat certification. Its federal activations in brief: federalized 10 February 1951 for the Korean War and released 1 November 1952; federalized again 1 October 1961 for the Berlin Crisis; a security deployment to Saudi Arabia in 1991 that the wing's fact sheet calls its first activation into a combat zone; and the Iraq and Afghanistan deployments rostered in the Wars record. Gained by Air Combat Command when federalized, the wing also hosts an Army tenant, the 338th Quartermaster Field Service Company, as the wing's fact sheet records. Its day-to-day standing — roughly a thousand citizen airmen drilling at Baer Field under state orders until called — is the largest single military presence in the city.

Sources:

1. 122nd Fighter Wing lineage and station data — established c. 30 October 1950; federalizations of 10 February 1951 and 1 October 1961; redesignation as 122nd Fighter Wing 16 March 1992; stations Stout Field (1946) and Baer Field (from 1 May 1951); the 358th Fighter Group constitution (20 December 1942), activation (1 January 1943), 1946 redesignation and 9 December 1946 federal recognition.
2. 122nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs fact sheet (2014) — the 1949 Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron at Baer Field, the 1954 headquarters transfer, the aircraft conversion dates, the 1991 Saudi Arabia deployment, the 338th Quartermaster tenancy, and the Blacksnake nickname tradition.
3. Squadron Prints, 163rd Fighter Squadron profile — the 163rd's federal recognition at Baer Field on 10 November 1947 under Major William R. Sefton, and the jet-era conversion dates.
4. Air National Guard, "122nd Fighter Wing completes historic F-16 conversion" (27 April 2026), and the National Guard Bureau release of the same date — the FY2023 NDAA conversion, twenty-one A-10s replaced by Block 40 F-16s, F-16s at Fort Wayne 1991–2010, and the restored combat certification.