It served in the United States until 1970, training pilots for deployment to Southeast Asia, while maintaining readiness for combat operations.

[1][4] The cadre that formed at Gowen moved to Wendover Field, Utah in February 1943, where the unit was fully staffed and squadron training with Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers began.

The squadron primarily engaged in the strategic bombing campaign against Germany, attacking industrial sites, oil refineries and storage facilities, communications centers and naval targets on the European Continent.

[4] The squadron was awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC) for attacking an aircraft factory at Regensburg, Germany, on 17 August 1943, withstanding heavy resistance to reach the target.

[4][6] Other strategic targets included aircraft factories at Brunswick, Kassel, and Reims; airfields at Paris, Berlin and in Bordeaux; naval installations at Emden, Kiel and La Pallice, chemical works in Ludwigshafen; ball bearing factories at Schweinfurt and rail marshalling yards in Bielefeld, Brussels, and Osnabruck.

It attacked military installations in France in early 1944 to help prepare the way for Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, and on D Day hit coastal defenses, artillery batteries and transportation targets.

It struck military installations and airfields near Arnhem during Operation Market Garden, the unsuccessful attempt to secure a bridgehead across the Rhine in the Netherlands.

President Truman’s reduced 1949 defense budget also required reductions in the number of units in the Air Force,[10] At O'Hare, the 338th Group and its squadrons were inactivated, and most of its personnel transferred to the 437th Troop Carrier Wing.

[7][11] The squadron was organized at McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas in October 1962 and assigned to the 388th Tactical Fighter Wing.

[6] After 1973, all repatriated Vietnam era prisoner of war (POW) pilots physically able to return to active flying duty came to the 560th for requalification training.

[6] In October 1993, the 560th added the missions of Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals and Upgrade Instructor Pilot Training in the "Smurf Jet" AT-38.