The wing routinely hosted attached aircraft and personnel from CONUS bases in large-scale winter exercises, while at the same time guarding against the Cold War threat of Soviet aggression.

Attached units carried out a wide variety of missions, including The 5001st also hosted Army personnel deployed to the Fairbanks area.

With the advent of the polar concept, military planners realized that they had very little operational knowledge of the Arctic region north of Alaska.

Alaskan recon crews had a variety of missions that helped lay the groundwork for polar navigation, flying and maintaining aircraft under Arctic conditions, and understanding weather systems.

The squadron's mission was to develop accurate polar navigation, survey and map the Arctic, perform comprehensive weather studies, test its men and equipment in Arctic conditions, and later train other units, particularly SAC bombers, in polar navigation and operations and fly long range photographic intelligence flights with RB-29 Superfortresses.

During the squadron's tenure at Ladd its men accomplished some of the most challenging tasks of Arctic flying and laid the groundwork for other units which carried on its mission through the 1950s.

Ongoing cold weather testing was Ladd's main operation, together with oversight of the scattered outposts of the Yukon Sector.

The 46th/72d's reconnaissance missions were intertwined with basic operational concerns, particularly since this was the first such unit to undertake long-range, long-term duties in the western Arctic.

In order to perform reconnaissance, for example, the crews had to perfect the grid navigation system for polar flying, a complex method which until that time had not been systematically tested.

Using specially modified RB-29s, crews flew long-range missions of 12 to 30 hours' duration, virtually all of it under strict radio silence.

The 46th/72d also photographed the Kamchatka Peninsula, Anadyr, Diomede, Wrangel Island, northern Siberia, and Novaya Zemlya, the Soviet Union's nuclear testing area.

In October 1949, the National Geographic Society released its new map of the Arctic, crediting the aerial photography teams of the U.S. Air Force, and the Ladd squadron in particular, with providing the updated information.

This gave planners the information they needed to develop routes for strategic bombers, and laid the groundwork for the initial war plans covering the Soviet Far East.

After 1958, the entire air defense operation ran out of the Alaskan NORAD Region Command and Control Center at Elmendorf.

As part of the national-level division of roles and missions, Army units were responsible for certain ground-based air defenses.

At Ladd, Army AAA units cooperated with the ADCC to provide antiaircraft defense with Skysweeper artillery.

The Nike Hercules weapons were computer-guided surface-to-air missiles designed to explode amid enemy bomber formations.

During World War II, Alaska's military search and rescue teams had developed equipment, operating systems and knowledge to serve the men in action.

By the time USAF inactivated the 10th Rescue in 1958, it had saved military and civilian lives throughout the Territory and had become well known as the glamour unit of the 1950s Air Force in Alaska.

By sponsoring and supporting the stations, USAF contributed to basic geophysical research as it tested military applications for its own purposes.