[1] During peacetime, the unit also provides search and rescue services to the maritime community, supports the US Coast Guard in missions outside their capabilities as well as NASA.

The group was dispatched overseas to RAF Boreham, Essex, in the United Kingdom, February–March 1944, and assigned to the 98th Combat Bombardment Wing (Medium) of the Ninth Air Force.

A total of 96 missions, on which 5,453 tons of bombs were dropped, were flown from Boreham before the group was moved on 24 July to RAF Holmsley South in the New Forest due to the urgent requirement of IX Bomber Command to extend the radius of action of part of its Martin B-26 Marauder force.

The 394th received a Distinguished Unit Citation for its flying during the period 7–9 August, when it made a series of attacks against heavily defended targets, destroying four rail bridges and devastating an ammunition dump.

It was during a bridge attack on 9 August that the lead B-26, piloted by Captain Darrell R. Lindsey, was hit by anti-aircraft fire and the right engine set alight.

The group's aircraft began to move to the airfield at Tour-en-Bessin in France (A-13) on 21 August and the last personnel left Holmesley South on the 31st.

The group remained in the theater to serve with United States Air Forces in Europe as part of the army of occupation at Kitzingen, Germany.

It was organized at Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn, New York, and was extended federal recognition on 21 March 1947 and activated by the National Guard Bureau.

In the postwar era, the Air National Guard was like a flying club for the many World War II veterans that filled its ranks.

Parts were no problem and many of the maintenance personnel were experienced from wartime duty, so readiness was quite high, and the planes were often much better maintained than their USAF counterparts.

With the surprise invasion of South Korea on 25 June 1950, and the regular military's complete lack of readiness, most of the Air National Guard was federalized placed on active duty on 1 February 1951.

The 106th was re-equipped with Boeing B-29 Superfortresses and given the mission to train reservist crewmen to back-fill rotating B-29 combat crews serving in Korea.

With the Starfire, the 102d began standing end of runway air defense alert, ready to launch interceptors if ADC Ground Intercept Radar picked up an unidentified target.

With the KC-97 being a variant of the C-97 Stratofreighter the conversion of the unit from transports to refueling aircraft was easily accomplished, the squadron receiving the KC-97Ls with addition of jet engine pods mounted to the outboard wings.

The success of this operation, which would continue until 1972, demonstrated the ability of the Air National Guard to perform significant day-to-day missions without being mobilized.

The squadron's base on Long Island enables it to act as the only Air Force rescue organization in the northeastern United States.

Technical Sergeant Arden Smith, a pararescueman (PJ), lost his life fulfilling the squadron's motto That Others May Live.

The 102d RS received international recognition when two aircrews and PJs of the squadron successfully completed the "longest over-water rescue with a helicopter in aviation history" in December 1994, a mission in which a pair of HH-60s flew to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and then 750 miles out over the Atlantic Ocean to search for survivors of the Ukrainian cargo ship Salvador Allende.

A search of the area located the last survivor, and PJ TSGT James Dougherty jumped into the ocean to effect the rescue.

[12] Between 6 Sep and Sept. 2017 the wing deployed 126 Airmen, three HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters and two HC-130 search and rescue aircraft to the Caribbean in the aftermath hurricanes Maria and Irma.

The unit flew cargo missions delivering vital aid to U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and its aircraft took part in the evacuation of American civilians from St.

[13] On 15 March 2018 four of the wing's guardsmen were killed when the HH-60G Pave Hawk rescue helicopter they were flying crashed near the city of Al-Qa'im in western Iraq.