The unit was originally designated as the 530th Air Transport Wing and assigned to the MATS Pacific Division.

C-118 Liftmasters and C-121 Constellations were common sights in the 1950s, while C-135 Stratolifters and C-141 Starlifters were used in the 1960 for passenger transport, mostly to destinations in Southeast Asia or Japan.

Many soldiers, sailors, airmen or marines returned to the United States from the Vietnam War via the Travis Aerial Port.

It was initially equipped with four squadrons of C-54 Skymasters that could reach the Continental US, but required intermediate stopovers along the Pacific Transport Routes to stations as far as Pakistan.

In May 1949, Fairfield-Suisun was realigned from MATS to Strategic Air Command jurisdiction, and all of the Wing's squadrons were reassigned to the 1500 ATW at Hickam AFB on 30 June.

22d Air Force arrived from Kelly AFB, TX, 25 June 1958 and the base's primary mission reverted to global airlift activities when MATS resumed jurisdiction.