The 311th first came into existence in February 1944 as the 311th Photographic Wing at Bolling Field in Washington, DC and was assigned to nearby Headquarters, Army Air Forces.

[10][11] In July 1945, the wing and its mapping squadrons replaced "Photographic" in their names with "Reconnaissance", reflecting the fact that its deployed units performed reconnaissance missions for overseas headquarters in addition to the mapping and charting missions they were deployed to perform.

[13] The 1st was inactivated in late 1945, but at that time the wing added the 54th and 55th Reconnaissance Squadrons, Very Long Range, Weather on Guam from Twentieth Air Force and the 59th Reconnaissance Squadron, Long Range, Weather from Third Air Force.

[18] In October, the 91st Reconnaissance Group, which had been recently activated at McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey was also assigned.

[1][22] The division's mission was to develop, test, and improve the equipment, tactics and techniques of strategic reconnaissance; to train replacement aircrews for SAC and overseas commands.

[23] Through April 1948, the bulk of the division's assets were involved with Operation Sandstone, nuclear weapons tests at Eniwetok Atoll.

[23] The division and the 55th Group moved from MacDill to Topeka Air Force Base, which had been reopened to receive them in July 1948.

[30] In late October the division joined the 91st at Barksdale, where it inactivated on 1 November 1949, while its personnel and equipment were transferred to Second Air Force, which was simultaneously activated.

[1][31] This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency