The group was awarded the Distinguished Unit Citation for completing an attack against a heavily defended target in January 1944.

The consolidated group was inactivated in June 2010, when AF Materiel Command returned to its traditional directorate systems management organization.

As one of only four Flying Fortress groups in VIII Bomber Command during late 1942 and early 1943, the 303rd participated in the development of the tactics that would be used throughout the air campaign against Germany.

It bombed military installations near Wesel in March 1945 in support of the First United States Army Operation Lumberjack to cross the Rhine.

However, the two B-17 groups moved to Casablanca proved surplus to Air Transport Command's needs and the squadron was inactivated in late July 1945 and its planes ferried back to the United States.

On 12 December 1942 (the group's sixth mission, after attacking railroad marshaling yards in the Sotteville-lès-Rouen area of France, The B-17 was damaged by Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighters.

The damage forced the pilot, First Lieutenant Paul F. Flickenger to make a wheels-up landing in a hayfield near Melun (60 miles southeast of Paris), with the ball turret guns pointing downward.

Eight of the crew were captured but Lieutenants Gilbert T. Schowalter (navigator) and Jack E. Williams (co-pilot) were able to escape and evade.

[10] Luftwaffe personnel transported the plane to the Leeuwarden Airfield in the Netherlands, where repairs were made and the B-17 put in flyable condition.

[11] In 2000, the German government started redeveloping the former airfield, and parts of Wulfe Hound were rediscovered and placed on display at the Sachsenhausen Memorial Store.

[11] The group was activated at Andrews Field, Maryland on 1 July 1947 and assigned to Strategic Air Command (SAC).

However, the group did not become operational because SAC was testing the "Dual Deputate" organization,[note 1] and its squadrons were managed by its parent 303rd Bombardment Wing.

[3][12] Prior to 2005, Program Executive Officers (PEO)s managing Air Force systems were generally located in Washington.

[3] The group managed the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned reconnaissance vehicle while it was simultaneously being manufactured and modified to increase its mission capability.

[14] After analyzing the results of that reorganization, the Air Force decided PEOs that were even closer to the persons managing programs on a day-to-day basis would improve the system.