Following V-E Day it operated with Air Transport Command, returning American troops to the United States until it was inactivated in theater in 1945.

[2][3][a] In April 1944, the squadron began flying combat missions from Torretto Airfield, Italy in the strategic bombing campaign against Germany.

[3] Two months later, on 21 August 1944, the squadron received a second DUC for an attack on underground oil storage facilities near Vienna, Austria.

It bombed bridges, viaducts, marshalling yards, and supply dumps to assist troops advancing on Rome between April and July 1944.

In September 1944, the unit transported petroleum products to troops participating in Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France.

[2][3] In 1959 Strategic Air Command (SAC) established the 4138th Strategic Wing at Turner Air Force Base, Georgia as part of SAC's plan to disperse its Boeing B-52 Stratofortress heavy bombers over a larger number of bases, thus making it more difficult for the Soviet Union to knock out the entire fleet with a surprise first strike.

[4] In 1962, in order to perpetuate the lineage of inactive bombardment units with illustrious World War II records, SAC received authority from Headquarters USAF to discontinue its Major Command controlled strategic wings that were equipped with combat aircraft and to replace them with Air Force controlled units, which could carry on their lineage and history.

[2][5][6] Half of the squadron's aircraft were maintained on fifteen-minute alert, fully fueled and ready for combat to reduce their vulnerability to a Soviet missile strike.