The 497th engaged in very heavy (B-29 Superfortress) bombardment operations against Japan and earned two Distinguished Unit Citations for its combat actions.

The unit was converted to provisional status and assigned to Pacific Air Forces which activated it to control exercises at Paya Lebar Airfield, Singapore various times between 2000 and 2006.

[6] In December the group moved on paper to Clovis Army Air Field, New Mexico,[note 2] although its ground personnel moved to Pratt Army Air Field, Kansas, where they were attached to the 40th Bombardment Group to begin training.

The 497th drew heavily on aircrews of the 480th Antisubmarine Group who were returning to the United States from duty in England and Africa to fill out its flying squadrons.

[5][9][10] The 497th deployed to Pacific Theater of Operations, with the ground echelon sailing on 30 July on the SS Fairisle, passing through Honolulu and Eniwetok before arriving at Saipan on 20 September.

The headquarters and staff elements flew to Saipan aboard Air Transport Command Douglas C-54 Skymaster aircraft.

Major Morgan and his crew had flown a solo mission on 10 November using radio countermeasures equipment to obtain information on the disposition of Japanese early warning and gun control radars.

Although weather conditions prevented the group from bombing its primary objective, the unescorted B-29s withstood severe enemy attacks to strike an alternate target, the industrial area of Hamamatsu.

The group assisted the assault on Okinawa in April 1945 by bombing enemy airfields to cut down air attacks against the invasion force.

Beginning on 19 March and continuing until the end of the war the group made incendiary raids against Japan, flying at night and at low altitudes to bomb area targets.

In 1962, in order to perpetuate the lineage of many currently inactive bombardment units with illustrious World War II records, SAC received authority from the USAF to discontinue its MAJCON wings that were equipped with combat aircraft and to activate Air Force-controlled (AFCON) units, most of which were inactive at the time which could carry a lineage and history.

[23] As a result, the 4108th was replaced by the newly constituted 497th Air Refueling Wing,[1] which assumed its mission, personnel, and equipment on 1 January 1963.

Its subordinate units were also inactivated with the exception of the 380th Air Refueling Squadron, which was reassigned to the 380th Bombardment Wing.