Look at it for a second and it reads as a drawing: soft grey shading, a white page for a sky, fine diagonal hatching across the whole frame. It is a photograph. Tech. Sgt. Andrew Schumann, a public affairs photographer with the Michigan Air National Guard’s 127th Wing, took it on 12 January 2024, when a winter storm arrived at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, north of Detroit. The aircraft is an A-10C Thunderbolt II, parked on the flight line with a ground power cart beside it. The hatching is snow, streaking across the frame as it fell.

Out to the Flight Line

The 127th Wing operates around the clock, every day of the year, and the storm did not change that. Schumann went out with his camera and photographed the wing’s A-10s as the snow came down, shooting a series of six images: a long line of jets under their sunshades, nose-on views with snow packed around the cannon, and this one, a single Warthog side-on. A slow shutter speed of one-thirtieth of a second turned the falling flakes into the streaks that give the picture its hand-drawn look. Snow had settled on every upper surface of the jet, from the canopy to the engine nacelles, smoothing out its detail.

“Is This a Drawing?”

When the image was shared on Reddit, commenters argued over whether it was a real photograph or a pencil sketch. Business Insider ran the series under a headline saying the A-10s in a whiteout looked like drawings. Another frame from the same shoot made the cover of Air & Space Forces Magazine in July/August 2024.

In February 2025 the 2024 National Guard Media contest named Schumann’s picture the Air National Guard’s feature photo of the year, moving it on to the Air Force-level judging.

As Schumann put it, what could be more Michigan than a “hawg” in the snow?

The End of the Hawgs at Selfridge

The picture is turning into a record of something that is going away. The A-10 is being retired across the Air Force, and on 29 April 2025 President Trump announced at Selfridge that the 127th Wing’s Warthogs would be replaced by 21 new F-15EX Eagle II fighters for the 107th Fighter Squadron. The new jets are expected to arrive by the end of 2028, and in October 2026 work began on realigning and extending the base’s runway to take them. KC-46 tankers are due to replace the wing’s KC-135s around 2030.

What the Popular Version Gets Right

The story going around is accurate: a real, unfiltered photograph by Tech. Sgt. Andrew Schumann of the 127th Wing, taken at Selfridge on 12 January 2024 during a snowstorm, showing an A-10C with a ground power cart, argued over online as a possible pencil drawing, and named Air National Guard Feature Photo of the Year in February 2025, with the Warthogs due to give way to 21 F-15EX jets.

Sources: Master Sgt. Chelsea E. FitzPatrick, “Public affairs Airmen win at telling 127th Wing story”, 127th Wing Public Affairs (2025); DVIDS, “Winter Weather Arrives at Selfridge Air National Guard Base”, images 8197893–8197898 (16 January 2024); 127th Wing, “Winter at Selfridge”, VIRIN 240112-Z-JK012-1003; Business Insider (January 2024); The War Zone, Tyler Rogoway (29 April 2025); WDIV ClickOnDetroit (28 October 2026).