[4] However, the Army Air Forces found that standard military units, based on relatively inflexible tables of organization were proving less well adapted to the training mission.

[6] In early 1952, the 581st received orders to forward deploy to Clark AB, Philippines, and to be assigned to Thirteenth Air Force.

Shortly before deploying, the 581st Air Resupply and Communications Group was reduced to a paper organization and its squadrons were attached to the wing.

Four of the wing's 12 B-29s, and associated support personnel were placed on a 60-day rotation schedule to Yokota Air Base, Japan, where they were co-located with the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron, which also flew the B-29.

The wing's B-29s were retrofitted to allow cargo or human "drops" and were stripped of armament, with the exception of the tail gun, and countermeasures in order to lighten their load and increase altitude and range.

[d] The wing's planes were painted solid black after their arrival at Clark AFB, and they flew long-range leaflet drop missions over North Korea.

An altitude-sensitive fuse opened the container at a predetermined set altitude, dependent on pre-mission forecast winds and desired dispersal patterns.

One of the most sensational missions of the 581st in Korea occurred on 12 January 1953, when a 581st B-29 (tail number 44-62217, call sign "Stardust Four Zero") on its first leaflet drop mission with the Wing Commander, Colonel John K. Arnold Jr. (as well as the commander of the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, Major William (Bill) H. Baumer) on board, was shot down on their last leaflet target just south of the Yalu River in far northern Korea near the Chinese town of Antung.

Twelve Russian MiG-15s from the 351st (and perhaps the 535th) Fighter Air Regiments intercepted the lone Superfortress south of the Yalu River, about {{convert|15|mi]] from the Chinese border.

According to Soviet sources: "...Senior Lieutenant Khabiev was to distinguish himself once again: that night, the Commander of the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron – Major William Baumer – decided to take a look at the situation in North Korea for himself and joined the crew of an RB-29 that was about to set off on a so-called ‘paper flight’ to drop leaflets.

This would appear to be an amusing mission for a strategic reconnaissance aircraft; a great deal of attention, however, was paid to psychological warfare – and the ‘flight’ that Baumer chose was a truly dangerous one.

Despite the fact that he had reduced the engine rpm, Khabiev turned away to the right to avert a collision owing to the difference in speed, breaking off combat underneath and to the right of the enemy aircraft.

He turned to the left and as he approached the burning aircraft’s tail from behind, he closed to a distance of 500–300 m, attacking once again at an aspect angle ranging from 0/4–1/4 with three long bursts of fire.

During the highly publicized Chinese trial in Beijing in October 1954, the surviving crew members, along with captured CIA agents Richard Fecteau and John T. Downey, who were captured two years earlier after they had been shot down while attempting to pick up their Chinese agent, were given prison sentences ranging from 5 years to life.