The 701st Airlift Squadron is part of the 315th Airlift Wing at Charleston Air Force Base, South Carolina. It operates Boeing C-17 Globemaster III aircraft providing global airlift. The squadron was first activated in April 1943 as the 701st Bombardment Squadron. After training in the United States, it deployed with its Consolidated B-24 Liberators to the European Theater of Operations, where it participated in the strategic bombing campaign until the end of hostilities, earning a Distinguished Unit Citation and a French Croix de Guerre with Palm for its actions. It returned to the United States in the summer of 1945 and was inactivated in September.