Activated on 1 January 1941 as one of the three squadrons assigned to the 32nd Pursuit Group as part of the United States buildup of forces after the eruption of World War II.

Transferred to III Fighter Command in June 1943, began training for deployment to the European Theater of Operations as a Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter-bomber squadron.

Initial missions included strafing and dive-bombing armored vehicles, trains, bridges, buildings, factories, troop concentrations, gun emplacements, airfields, and other targets in preparation for the invasion of Normandy.

The squadron also flew some escort missions with Eighth Air Force Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and Consolidated B-24 Liberator strategic bombers.

Operations supported the breakthrough at Saint-Lô in July and the thrust of U.S. Third Army toward Germany in August and September as part of the 303rd Fighter Wing of XIX Tactical Air Command.

By V-E Day, the squadron was based at Kassel-Rothwestern Airfield, Germany (R-12), where it remained until February 1946 as part of the United States Air Forces in Europe Army of Occupation.

Remained at Fürstenfeldbruck until 1952 when it moved to the new Bitburg Air Base, west of the Rhine River near the French border in the Eifel mountains.

In 1956, the squadron received the North American F-100 Super Sabre, marking the first time a wing in USAFE flew supersonic jets.

In July 1993, HQ USAFE announced the closure of Bitburg Air Base and the pending inactivation of the 36th Fighter Wing.

It was during the squadron's support of the no-fly zone in northern Iraq that two of its fighters were involved in the 1994 Black Hawk shootdown incident.

[4] On 10 December 2021, the 53 FS was activated at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, as an associate unit of the 113th Wing's 121st Fighter Squadron.

1994 Black Hawk shootdown incident This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency