After equipping with Boeing B-52 Stratofortresses stood nuclear alert, but during the Viet Nam War the squadron deployed frequently to perform Operation Arc Light bombing missions.

[4] On 29 July 1917, under command of Captain W.W. Wynne, the squadron moved to Wilbur Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, where it received its first training in the handling of Curtiss JN-4 and Standard J-1 aircraft.

[5][6] After the squadron returned to the United States it re-formed with new personnel at Ellington Field, Houston Texas in June 1919.

[7] In May 1920 the squadron was temporarily assigned to Langley Field, Virginia and became part of the First Provisional Air Brigade under Brigadier General Billy Mitchell.

Its mission would be to attack captured German ships along the Atlantic coast off Virginia in a service demonstration to determine whether a battleship could be sunk by bombing.

[7] In 1932 the squadron received and began service testing the Boeing Y1B-9, the first American all-metal monoplane bomber aircraft design.

One recommendation was the use of a checklist that the pilot and copilot would use together before takeoff, hopefully preventing accidents such as the one which resulted in the loss of the original Boeing Model 299.

This demonstration of the Y1B-17's range and navigational capabilities, but also showed how useful the plane could be in attacking an enemy invasion force before it came close enough to American shores to do any damage.

[7] The squadron re-equipped with more modern B-17F Flying Fortresses and moved to Ephrata Army Air Field, Washington for transition and combat training in late 1942 and early 1943.

The unit flew many support and air interdiction missions, bombing such targets as marshalling yards, airfields, troop concentrations, bridges, docks, and shipping.

[7] The squadron was transferred to Fifteenth Air Force control in December 1943 and engaged in bombing operations primarily in Italy in support of the Allied drive north toward Rome from January to June 1944.

It also supported Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France in August 1944 and the campaigns against German forces in northern Italy from June 1944 until the end of the war.

The unit engaged primarily in long-range bombardment of strategic targets after October 1943, attacking oil refineries, aircraft factories, steel plants, and other objectives in Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania, and Greece.

On the following day, while on a mission to attack aircraft factories at Regensburg, it met similar opposition equally well and was awarded a second DUC.

Equipped with B-47 Stratojet medium bombers in 1954, flying training missions and standing nuclear alert until the phaseout of the B-47 in 1963.