It is stationed at Selfridge Air National Guard Base and is one of two flying groups assigned to the 127th Wing.

It served in the European Theater of Operations as part of VIII Fighter Command, flying its last mission on 20 April 1945.

A team of American engineers were called in during January 1944 and, in three days, they constructed a 4410 foot long runway with pierced steel planking (PSP).

[2][6] The unit served primarily as an escort organization, covering the penetration, attack, and withdrawal of Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber formations that the Army Air Forces sent against targets on the Continent.

Attacked such targets as airdromes, marshaling yards, industrial areas, ordnance depots, oil refineries, trains, and highways.

[2] During its operations, the unit participated in the assault against the German Air Force and aircraft industry during the Big Week, 20–25 February 1944, and the attack on transportation facilities prior to D-Day and support of the invasion forces thereafter, including Operation Cobra, the breakout at Saint Lo, in July.

[2] From its new base, the group supported Operation Market-Garden, the airborne attack on Rhine River crossings in the Netherlands in September 1944.

In February, the entire group deployed to Chievres Airfield, Belgium, flying tactical ground support missions during Operation Varsity, the airborne assault across the Rhine in Germany and remained until April.

[2] Two months later, the State of Michigan activated it at Wayne County Airport, near Detroit, and it received federal recognition in September.

[7] The group trained fighter pilots with North American F-51 Mustangs, Lockheed F-80 Shooting Stars and F-84 Thunderjets.

In 1962, to facilitate mobilization of elements smaller than an entire wing, the 117th and 171st Squadrons were assigned to newly organized groups.

It returned to the fighter mission in 1972, but was inactivated in December 1974, when the Air National Guard eliminated group headquarters that were located on the same base as their parent wings.