[1] After rudimentary indoctrination into the Army at Kelly Field, the squadron was given orders for overseas duty in France, and proceeded to Fort Totten, New York on 15 August.

The next day, they left Pier 59, en route to Halifax, Nova Scotia where the ship anchored awaiting for a convoy.

The destroyer dropped depth charges on the submarine, and the Baltic made a sudden turn to port, that caused both men and anything loose aboard the ship to move.

Suddenly a large explosion was heard and five long blasts were made by the ship's whistle and everyone on board was ordered to report to their assigned lifeboats.

The Baltic's captain announced that a torpedo had struck the ship, but it had only made a glancing blow on the bow; that the emergency pumps were working and there was no danger.

At Southampton, fifty men of the squadron were detached to the Royal Flying Corps for three months training as aircraft mechanics.

Athletics was an important part of the duty at Issodun, giving the squadron, which was widely divided around the station, an esprit-de-corps and helped build morale.

[5] During the month of September 1918, training was especially intense as new pilots, to be assigned to the new Second Army Air Service, began to arrive for instruction.

By the time of the Armistice on 11 November, the men of the squadron held responsible positions in many of the support areas of the Third Aviation Instruction Center.

[5] The 33rd remained at Issodun until the end of December 1918 when orders were received to proceed to the 1st Air Depot, Colombey-les-Belles Airdrome, France, for demobilization.

From Colombey, the squadron was moved to a staging camp under the Services of Supply at Bordeaux, France, in January waiting for a date to report to a base port for transportation home.

The P-40s and P-39s were replaced with new Republic P-47D Thunderbolts, however, with the Germans in full retreat after D-Day, the 24th was disestablished and the 33rd remained in Iceland as a defensive measure under IBC until the end of the war when it was inactivated.

[3] The 33rd was again re-activated at the newly opened Myrtle Beach Air Force Base, South Carolina by TAC as the 33rd Fighter-Day Squadron as part of the 342nd FDG on 25 July 1956.

In 1982, as the 363rd converted to a General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon tactical fighter wing, the 33rd was inactivated on 1 October 1982 when its reconnaissance training mission ended.

Lt Col Gary L. North, commander of 33rd Fighter Squadron, became the first American F-16 pilot to score an aerial victory over Iraq on 27 December 1992.

[12] From 2009 the mission of the 33rd SOS was to operate the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper, primarily over combat areas, to provide surveillance and reconnaissance.

During 2012, 39 members of the squadron were deployed, accumulating a total of 3,891 days downrange and facilitating thousands of hours of ISR coverage.

Ten additional squadron members were deployed to fill roles such as Remotely Piloted Aircraft liaison officers, ISR battle captains, and group commanders.