It initially operated in the southeastern United States under Third Air Force flying antisubmarine patrols along the Gulf Coast after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

The unit was reassigned to Fourth Air Force in Southern California during early 1942, flying reconnaissance, mapping, artillery adjustment, bombing, dive-bombing, and strafing missions to support Army ground units in training at the Desert Training Center or on maneuvers.

It was reactivated during the Korean War and equipped with Douglas RB-26 Invaders and deployed to Kimpo AFB (K-14), South Korea.

There were four standard missions—one that ran along the border with North Korea, another that flew up the North Korean coast on the east side, and another on the west side, and the final missions, called E (in phonetic parlance of the day, "Easy") was a long duration mission that headed down the coast of China to the Shantung Peninsula, gathering signals and electronics data from what was then called "Red China".

The squadron deployed to Thailand shortly after formation, flying tactical reconnaissance missions primarily over North Vietnam and selected locations in Laos and Cambodia.

In the fall of 1970 the squadron's parent wing was phased down as part of the overall American withdrawal from the Vietnam War, returned to Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina where the unit was inactivated in early 1971.

[2] The unit was reactivated at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base later in 1971 as a Ryan AQM-34 Firebee unmanned tactical reconnaissance drone squadron.

Reactivated on 29 July 1995, at Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field, Nevada,[8] under command of the 57th Operations Group, 57th Wing.