Established as part of the Army Air Corps in January 1938 at Olmsted Field, Pennsylvania but not activated until 1 December 1940.

Unit designation transferred to Westover Field, Massachusetts, but not equipped or crewed until after the Pearl Harbor Attack.

Performed intra-theater transport flights of personnel, supply and equipment within England during summer and fall of 1942, reassigned to Twelfth Air Force after Operation Torch invasion of North Africa, stationed at Tafaraoui Airfield, Algeria.

Its unarmed aircraft flew at night over uncharted territory, landing at small unprepared airfields to provide guns, ammunition, clothing, medical supplies, gasoline, and mail to the partisans.

It also dropped paratroopers at Megava, Greece in October 1944 and propaganda leaflets in the Balkans in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations until end of combat in Europe, May, 1945.

[1] It was equipped with C-21 Learjets to provide airlift for high ranking officers of Air Combat Command and other headquarters in the Norfolk-Hampron Roads area.