The stay at Garden City lasted ten days, when movement orders were received to report to the New York Port of Embarkation, Hoboken, New Jersey.

There, the squadron boarded the SS Kaiser Wilhelm II, on the 13th, a former German liner impressed into troop carrier duty by the United States.

Land was sighted on the morning of 24 January and a great sense of relief was felt by all when the French harbor of Brest was entered.

It was ordered to report to Ourches Aerodrome in the "Zone of Advance" (Western Front), and after several days on a very uncomfortable French troop train, the squadron arrived.

The 465th Aero Squadron (Construction) arrived a few days later, along with Company B, 119th Machine Gun Battalion in a week to assist with the effort.

After a month, the squadron was again ordered to move to the II Corps Aeronautical School at Châtillon-sur-Seine, France, arriving on 8 June.

Then the men were classified according to past experiences and place in various shops, the radio department, armory, and on the airfield as airplane crews.

Since many of the men were mechanics in civil life, they picked up the skills very easily, and in about two months they worked on their own responsibility in whatever jobs needed to be accomplished.

Since there were no airfields in Connecticut capable of handling military type aircraft, the squadron was initially allocated to the Rhode Island National Guard.

However, after the opening of Brainard Field in Hartford in October 1922, efforts were immediately launched to secure the Air Service unit of the 43d Division for the State of Connecticut.

Deployed to the China Burma India Theater of operations as part of the 23d Fighter Group, the "Flying Tigers."

The unit participated in security patrol, close air support, and ground attack missions as part of the 23d Fighter Group.

It was organized at Bradley Field, Windsor Locks, Connecticut, and was extended federal recognition on 7 August 1946 by the National Guard Bureau.

Aircraft parts were no problem and many of the maintenance personnel were World War II veterans 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 lack of readiness, most of the Air National Guard was called to active duty.

However, ADC was experiencing difficulty under the existing wing base organizational structure in deploying its fighter squadrons to best advantage.

[2] It therefore reorganized on a regional basis and the 118th was assigned to the 4709th Defense Wing, located at McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey.

[3] During its period of federalization, the 118th FIS transferred many of its pilots and ground support personnel to Fifth Air Force, where they served in combat in Korea, while regulars and reservists were assigned to the squadron.

On 1 November 1952, the 118th was returned to the control of the Connecticut Air National Guard and its mission, personnel and aircraft were assigned to the 45th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron.

Upon the 118th's return, the F-47s were sent to Davis-Monthan AFB for storage and the squadron was re-equipped with Very Long Range F-51H Mustangs by TAC with a close air support mission.

In 1990 the 103d was programmed to receive the specialized Block 10 F-16A/B Fighting Falcon, also referred to as the F/A-16 due to its close air support configuration.

During Operation Desert Storm, the F/A-16 was battle tested and it was discovered that the Close Air Support F-16 project proved to be a miserable failure.

Subsequently, the conversion of the Wing was cancelled in 1993, and the 118th TFS remained an A-10 Thunderbolt II close air support squadron.

In March 1992, with the end of the Cold War, the 103d adopted the Air Force Objective Organization plan, and the unit was re-designated as the 103d Fighter Group.

The primary use of the MC-12W is providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or ISR, support directly to ground forces however it is changing to the C-130[5] ** This unit is not related to another '118th Aero Squadron' that was assigned to Brooks Field, Texas in April 1918.