It moved to Cannon Air Force Base, where it served as a training unit until returning to state control at the end of the year.

[2] It flew escort for Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bombers during its first five weeks of operations, and afterwards flew escort missions to cover operations of medium and heavy bombers that struck strategic objectives, interdicted enemy lines of communication, and provided air support for ground forces.

It strafed and dive bombed vehicles, locomotives, marshaling yards, flak batteries, and troops while Allied forces fought to break out of the beachhead in France.

It attacked transportation targets during Operation Cobra, the July breakout at Saint Lo, and the subsequent Allied drive across France.

It flew area patrols during Operation Market-Garden, the airborne landings attempting to secure a bridgehead across the Rhine in the Netherlands in September.

In March 1945 it supported Operation Varsity, the assault across the Rhine in Germany, patrolling the area to prevent German air attacks.

[11] In January 1950 the 138th became the first New York National Guard unit to receive jet aircraft, replacing its Thunderbolts with Republic F-84B Thunderjets over the next three months,[12] Most of these planes came from the regular 20th Fighter Group at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina.

[14] The air defense mission remained after the Korean War armistice and the unit resumed normal peacetime training and drills.

In 1954, the Mustang was ending its service life and Air Defense Command (ADC) was re-equipping its fighter-interceptor squadrons with jet aircraft.

The new assignment involved a change in the squadron's training mission to include high-altitude interception, air-to-ground rocketry, ground strafing and tactical bombing.

[1][17] During the summer of 1961, as the 1961 Berlin Crisis unfolded, the 138th was notified of its pending federalization and recall to active duty and told to achieve maximum operational readiness in as short a period as possible.

On 1 October the it was federalized and assigned to the Massachusetts Air National Guard's 102d Tactical Fighter Wing, which called to active duty for twelve months.

Since the F-86H lacked an air refueling capability, the squadron deployed via the World War II North Atlantic ferry route.

Some Guardsmen, primarily pilots, volunteered to remain on active duty as the cadre of the 480th Tactical Fighter Squadron, which would operated from Phalsbourg with Republic F-84F Thunderstreaks, began to arrive.

[citation needed] The squadron trained at Ramey Air Force Base, Puerto Rico, in early 1967 in an all service amphibious and airborne exercise.

Twelve F-86Hs were flown and squadron pilots worked with radar flying air-to-air and air-to-ground gunnery with and without forward air control (FAC) type missions.

It was alerted for active duty on 11 April 1968, partially mobilized on 13 May and deployed to Cannon Air Force Base, Clovis, New Mexico.

The squadron gave FAC's in training actual experience in fighter aircraft so that they would be fully apprised of the requirements of the men they would be directing in combat in South Vietnam.

Originally based in Denver, Colorado, headquarters of the 140th moved to Cannon ith the deployment of the 140th Tactical Fighter Group to active duty in Vietnam.

Replacing the Sabre was the Cessna A-37B Dragonfly[1] and a newly conceived close air support tactical fighter mission in a ground insurgency environment which were gained by combat experience in Vietnam.

[citation needed] After a decade of routine peacetime exercises and training with the A-37, in 1979 the 174th began a transition to the Fairchild Republic A-10A Thunderbolt II close air support fighter.

[citation needed] With the transition complete, the unit deployed eight A-10 aircraft from Syracuse, non-stop to a forward operation location in West Germany.

Precision aiming was impossible for several reasons: the pylon mount wasn't as steady as the A-10's rigid mounting; the F-16 flies much faster than an A-10, giving the pilots too little time approaching the target; firing the gun shook the aircraft harshly and made it impossible to control the targeting; the essential CCIP (constantly computed impact point) software was unavailable.

It took only a couple of days of this before they gave up, unbolted the gun pods, and went back to dropping real cluster bombs – which did the job more effectively.

[23] In June 1995, the unit deployed for 30 days rotation to Incirlik Air Base, Turkey as part of Operation Provide Comfort, assisting in the enforcement the No Fly Zone over Northern Iraq.

[citation needed] The 138th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron was first formed and deployed in August 1996 for Operation Northern Watch, a US European Command Combined Task Force that was responsible for enforcing the United Nations mandated no-fly zone above the 36th parallel in Iraq.

[citation needed] During 1996–97, the squadron deployed to Andøya Air Station, Norway as part of the "Adventure Express 97" NATO exercise.

[citation needed] An AEF deployment to Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia resulted in the formation of the 138th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron in early 2000.

[1] In October 2009, the 174th Fighter Wing cut the ribbon on its new MQ-9 Reaper maintenance school, where it trains technicians from across the country, from all military branches.

This exercise evaluates crews on a number of criteria, specifically identified because of their critical importance to everyday, real-world mission requirements.