Moving to William Northern Field, Tennessee, they worked up to strength as an operational unit, flying the P-39 Airacobra and P-40 Warhawk.

[4] On 6 June 1944, the 48th participated in D-day, the start of the liberation of France, which included more than 14,000 sorties flown by the allied air forces.

The three squadrons assisted the Normandy invasion by dropping bombs on bridges and gun positions, attacking rail lines and trains, and providing visual reconnaissance reports.

[4] On 18 June, the 48th along with the 492d and 493d Fighter Squadrons moved to Deux Jumeaux Airfield, Advanced Landing Ground (ALG) (A-4), France.

During this period they received a Distinguished Unit Citation for their attack on German positions in Jülich, Germany, undertaken on 6 December 1944 in difficult weather and against heavy enemy fire.

Chaumont Air Base was still largely under construction at the time of the activation of the 48th FBG and living and working conditions were primitive.

The men were billeted in tents that were heated by pot-bellied stoves; all of the roads on the base were yet unpaved and were basically mud ruts through the turf.

Within two years, the wing headed up an engineering project that resulted in the construction of permanent barracks, a wing headquarters, flightline shops, and warehouses With the F-84, the 48 FBG supported NATO and the United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE), activities, participating in exercises with the US Seventh Army.

However, at this time the Chaumont runway was closed for repair, which resulted in the wing deploying to Berrechid Airfield, Morocco (near Casablanca), to train with its new aircraft.

In August 1998 an F-15D (Serial 86–182) of the 493d Fighter Squadron paid a visit to Chaumont-Semoutiers Air Base (now called Quartier General d'Aboville), France for an open house static display.

On 5 August 1993, the 492d Fighter Squadron conducted the wing's first F-15E deployment when it went to Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, under Operation PROVIDE COMFORT (succeeded by NORTHERN WATCH).

Thirteen days after the 492d's arrival in Turkey, Iraq violated the exclusion zone by placing surface-to-air missiles outside of the city of Mosul.

In February 1999, while the wing served another rotation in Turkey, acts of aggression by Serbia—the core of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia—against its Albanian population in the province of Kosovo resulted in NATO intervention, culminating in Operation ALLIED FORCE.3 Strikes against Serbian targets began on 24 March 1999.

Within 72 hours, the 493d Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, stationed at Cervia Air Base, Italy, recorded four aerial victories over Serbian Mikoyan MiG-29s.

The 492 and 494 FS flew combat mission from RAF Lakenheath and Aviono AB, Italy, respectively, and employed all the AGM-130 against Serbian Air Defenses.

In all, the pilots of the 48th serving under expeditionary squadrons flew 2,562 sorties for more than 11,000 combat hours in less than three months, dropping approximately 3 million pounds of munitions and scoring four out of five confirmed Air Force aerial victories.

The 493d also deployed to Prince Sultan and served as SOUTHERN WATCH's air superiority squadron, flying 893 sorties for 2,201.9 hours.

In response, President George W. Bush initiated Operation ENDURING FREEDOM—air and ground strikes against terrorist organizations and training camps in Afghanistan.

The F-15C and F-15E squadrons ensured air superiority and supremacy for C-17 aircraft delivering humanitarian daily rations to Afghan refugees in Afghanistan.