It participated in combat and airlift operations until V-E Day, earning a Distinguished Unit Citation for its actions on D-Day.

Following the end of hostilities, it participated in the airlift of American troops back to the United States until inactivating in Trinidad in the summer of 1945.

It provided airlift throughout South and Central America, including participation in Operation Just Cause until inactivating with the withdrawal of United States forces from Panama in 1999.

It was established in early 1942 as a Douglas C-47 Skytrain transport squadron under First Air Force, and later trained under I Troop Carrier Command in the eastern United States.

The squadron engaged in combat operations by dropping paratroops into Normandy on D-Day (6 June 1944) and releasing gliders with reinforcements on the following day.

It also hauled food, clothing, medicine, gasoline, ordnance equipment, and other supplies to the front lines and evacuated patients to rear zone hospitals.

In late May 1945, after V-E Day, the squadron moved to Waller Field, Trinidad and attached to Air Transport Command.

From Trinidad, the squadron ferried returning military personnel to Morrison Field, Florida, where they were sent on to other bases or prepared for separation after the war.

The squadron flew airlift missions in South and Central America from 1985 to 1999, including support for Operation Just Cause, December 1989 to January 1990, until its inactivation in March 1999.

On 24 April 1992 two Peruvian Sukhoi Su-22 fighters attacked and heavily damaged a squadron C-130 Hercules flying an Air Bridge Denial Program anti-drug mission in international airspace.

[6][7] In 2001, the squadron was reactivated as part of the redesignated 6th Air Mobility Wing at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, where it flew the C-37A Gulfstream V. In 2013, the unit received a United States Central Command deployment tasking to provide combat airlift to the Commander, International Security Assistance Force at Kabul International Airport.