The unit was activated as the 41st Ferrying (later, Transport) Squadron at Accra, British Gold Coast (Ghana), West Africa, in Aug 1942.

Over the next fourteen months, its C-54s flew to Goose Bay, Labrador; Torbay, Newfoundland; Port Lyautey, Morocco; Tripoli, Libya; England; West Germany; Thule, Greenland; Bermuda; the Azores and France.

In November–December, it flew the first of many missions in support of the UN, transporting peace-keeping forces from Columbia and India to Beirut in Lebanon, to enforce a Middle East cease-fire between Egypt and Israel.

The squadron frequently flew support missions for presidential trips, including President Richard M. Nixon's visit to the People's Republic of China in February 1972.

It flew missions in support of the evacuation and resettlement of Southeast Asian refugees, as the Communists took over South Vietnam and Cambodia between April and June 1975.