IV Corps was transferred to the United States Second Army in October 1918 for a planned offensive drive on Metz which was cancelled due to the 1918 Armistice with Germany on 11 November.

It was formed from personnel transferred from the 14th and 18th Aero Squadrons, being originality designated as "Company A, 1st Aviation School, Rockwell Field".

After a short period, orders were received on 25 November and the squadron boarded a train bound for the Aviation Concentration Center, Long Island, New York.

[1] At the Rest Camp at Winchester (Morn Hill), the squadron was attached to the Royal Flying Corps for additional training and divided up into Flights.

From the staging area at Le Havre, the squadron boarded French railway cars and moved south to the American 3d Air Instructional Center at Issoudun Aerodrome.

The first sortie was quite an affair with Brigadier General Benjamin Foulois, then Chief of the Air Service, Zone of Advance, leading the formation of squadron aircraft.

For the next week or so the squadron performed subsequent missions, with no enemy aircraft being engaged, although German Anti-Aircraft Artillery hitting the planes with shrapnel.

In the combat that ensued, the pilot was wounded three times in the leg and the aircraft fuel line was severed by a bullet causing the engine to stall.

[1] Numerous sorties and combats occurred throughout the month of September, with the squadron being shifted from one division to another, providing the commanders operational intelligence and reconnaissance photography.

[1] From Toul, mission of the most perilous nature were undertaken under difficult circumstances; however, the pilots and observers of the squadron continued to provide excellent results.

It stayed in Tours until 10 February 1919 when orders were received to report to the 1st Air Depot, Colombey-les-Belles Airdrome to turn in all of its supplies and equipment and was relieved from duty with the AEF.

[7] Personnel at Colombey were subsequently assigned to the commanding general, services of supply, and ordered to report to a staging camp at Tresses, France, where it remained until 18 April.

[8] Following the advances made by American troops during the Battle of Saint-Mihiel in 1918, Corporal Lee Duncan, a DH-4 gunner in the 135th A.S., was sent forward from Ourches on 15 September to the small French village of Flirey to see if it was suitable for a flying field.

The only dogs left alive in the kennel were a starving mother with a litter of five nursing puppies, their eyes still shut because they were less than a week old.

DSC: Distinguished Service Cross; SSC: Silver Star Citation; KIA: Killed in Action[12] This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency