Reactivated on 18 July 1954, at McGuire AFB, New Jersey, the squadron came under the Military Air Transport Service (MATS).

It became operational in September, transporting passengers, cargo and mail in C-118s to South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia, as well as within the US.

Each year from activation in 1968 to 1974, the squadron resupplied scientific stations in the Antarctic involved in Operation Deep Freeze.

The squadron frequently flew humanitarian missions for the relief of victims of earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and snowstorms; this included flights to Pakistan in 1970 and 1971; Managua, Nicaragua, in 1972 and 1973; Guatemala, Italy and Turkey in 1976; the Dominican Republic in 1978; and the Yemen Arab Republic in December 1982.

It provided, on occasion, airlift for the US State Department and in April 1972 transported two musk oxen to China in exchange for two giant pandas.

It airlifted French and Belgian troops to Zaire in May and June 1978 to protect and evacuate Europeans threatened by civil war.

On 9–12 May 1983, the first all-woman C-141 crew, members of the 18th MAS, flew from McGuire AFB to Rhein Main AB, Germany on an aeromedical evacuation mission.