To facilitate day-to-day operations the wing employs approximately 350 Air Reserve Technicians who work full-time for the unit.

The wing and its components moved to nearby Niagara Falls Municipal Airport, where it received Republic F-84 Thunderjets, in 1955.

[7] As a result of these reductions, the 445th's fighter operations at Niagara Falls ceased, and it began to train with the Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar.

[11][12][13] The wing began to use inactive duty training periods for Operation Swift Lift, transporting high priority cargo for the air force and Operation Ready Swap, transporting aircraft engines, between Air Materiel Command's depots.

Simultaneously, the wing was redesignated as an assault troop carrier organization and began conversion to Fairchild C-123 Providers.

[16] To resolve the mobilization problem, at the start of 1962 ConAC determined to reorganize its reserve wings by establishing groups with support elements for each of its troop carrier squadrons.

However, as this plan was entering its implementation phase, another partial mobilization, which included the 445th Wing, occurred for the Cuban Missile Crisis, with the units being released on 22 November 1962.

[4] The wing was activated when the USS Pueblo, an intelligence-gathering ship, was seized off the coast of North Korea.

During the mobilization, the 904th Military Airlift Group, stationed at Stewart Air Force Base, New York was also assigned to the wing.

[4][20] The 445th Airlift Wing was activated at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, 1 October 1994 and again flew the C-141 Starlifter.

The wing was active in the wake of the 11 September attacks in 2001 by providing emergency airlift of supplies, medical teams and Federal Emergency Management Agency personnel to McGuire Air Force Base, to assist with operations after the World Trade Center collapse.

The wing also served in the mission of evacuating wounded personnel from battlefield in Asia to regional treatment facilities and bringing fallen service members home for burial.

On 6 May 2006, the Hanoi Taxi touched down for the last time and was received in a formal retirement ceremony at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, also at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (at the southern airfield, as opposed to the northern airfield where the 445th operates).

On 12 March 2010, the AFMC announced that the 445th will transition to the McDonnell Douglas C-17 Globemaster III aircraft over the next two years.

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