When the reserve began to re-equip with aircraft in 1952, it was briefly activated as the 457th Troop Carrier Squadron, but transferred its personnel and equipment to another unit a month later.

Accordingly, the Army Air Forces adopted a more functional system in which each base was organized into a separate numbered unit.

[1] The squadron arrived at its combat station, North Field, Guam in the Mariana Islands in early February 1945.

XXI Bomber Command switched to low altitude night area attacks with incendiaries beginning in March 1945.

It was awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC) for incendiary raids on the industrial sections of Tokushima and Gifu and a strike against the hydroelectrical power center at Kofu in July 1945.

[4] Following V-J Day the squadron dropped food and supplies to Allied prisoners of war and participated in several show of force missions over Japan.

[1] It is not clear whether the squadron possessed its own aircraft or flew the Curtiss C-46 Commandos of the 2253rd Air Force Reserve Training Center.

At Can Tho and Soc Trang Airfields, South Vietnam, Air Force personnel began being assigned to the 134th Aviation Company.

[26] However, a Viet Cong mortar attack on Can Tho on 21 December 1967 that damaged two C-7s, forced a reevaluation of dispersal arrangements and Caribous were withdrawn from Pleiku.

The squadron experienced an exception to this during the attempt by the North Vietnamese Army to overrun Duc Lap Camp, near the Cambodian border.

The camp was manned by half strength Civilian Irregular Defense Group companies, assisted by American special forces.

Duc Lap's landing strip was outside its defensive perimeter, and once Communist forces had surrounded the camp and occupied parts of it, airlanding resupplies was out of the question.

After the 26th, reinforcements expanded the area under friendly control and the brunt of further supply was borne by Army Boeing CH-47 Chinook heavy lift helicopters.

Resupply of the camp was so urgent that all drop-qualified crews of the 483rd Tactical Airlift Wing were ordered to Pleiku to support the operation and eleven sorties were flown that day with cover from Douglas A-1 Skyraiders.

Loss of the third Caribou in five days, including one from the 457th, prompted a move to resupply the camp with night drops, with cover and illumination provided by Fairchild AC-119 Stinger gunships.

[30] The squadron was the last C-7 unit of the 483d Wing to inactivate, ending operations on 25 March 1972 and transferring most of its equipment to the Republic of Viet Nam Air Force at the end of April 1972 as Cam Ranh Bay prepared for closure with the withdrawal of the United States military from Viet Nam.

[1][24][31] Seven aircraft, along with aircrew and maintenance personnel, were transferred to the 310th Tactical Airlift Squadron at Tan Son Nhut Airport.

[33] The Air Force also decided the fleet would become all jet, using North American T-39 Sabreliners, although the squadron continued to operate propeller driven Convair VC-131s for another two years.

[1] In addition, the T-39s provided newly-graduated Air Force pilots with operational experience before assignment to combat units.