Established in late 1943 as a B-24 Liberator heavy bomber squadron, it trained under the Second Air Force. It deployed to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO) in April 1944, being assigned to the Fifteenth Air Force in Southern Italy.



Despite its designation, the squadron did not perform pathfinder missions. Instead it engaged in very long range strategic bombardment missions against targets in Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and the Balkans until April 1945. It bombed aircraft factories, assembly plants, oil refineries, storage areas, marshalling yards, airdromes and other objectives until the German capitulation in May 1945.



The unit was attached to Air Transport Command in May 1945; it used its B-24s as transport aircraft, flying personnel from locations in France and Italy to Casablanca in French Morocco. It also engaged in transport operations from North Africa to the Azores or Dakar in French West Africa where personnel were eventually transported to Florida. The squadron inactivated in place in French Morocco during July 1945.



Reactivated under Strategic Air Command (SAC) in 1963, it replaced a provisional B-52D Stratofortess squadron at Turner AFB, Georgia. It carried out intercontinental training and deployments, also standing nuclear alert. In early 1966, the squadron deployed personnel to forward bases in the Western Pacific, where they engaged in combat missions over Indochina as part of Operation Arc Light. The unit was inactivated in 1967 with the closure of Turner AFB and a reduction in the B-52 force, their role taken over by ICBMs.