From 1956 to 1974, the squadron was assigned to the Air Force Reserve where it trained for and performed search and rescue in addition to aeromedical evacuation missions, mainly in the southwestern United States.

The unit that had been the 302d was reflagged as the 71st Special Operations Squadron and physically relocated to Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ.

With the transition of AFRES to Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC), the squadron deployed several times since late 1992 to Turkey to help enforce the no-fly zone over Iraq and to Italy to support UN air operations in the Balkans.

[1] In 2007, the squadron relocated from Luke AFB to Elmendorf AFB, AK and transitioned from the F-16 Fighting Falcon to the F-22 Raptor, which it operates as an Associate AFRC unit the active duty Air Force's 3rd Wing.

This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency