Full-time training was finally initiated in October 1944 and ground school instruction began for all men of the unit. In January 1945, the air echelon deployed to Batista Army Airfield, Cuba for flying and bombing training. The ground echelon departed on 8 January for Seattle, where it embarked on the S. S. Howell Lykes for North Field, Guam. In the meantime, the air echelon had returned from Cuba and the Group was in the last stages of preparation for the ferrying of personnel and the new operational B-29s received from Boeing-Wichita.