After fourteen months at now redesignated Larson Air Force Base, the 81st received movement orders to deploy to England.

The wing was the first Sabre Jet unit to be based in Europe, and the first to form an integral part of the peacetime air defense of Great Britain.

Although the pilots had a relatively short time to acquaint themselves with RAF techniques and procedures and the methods of fighter control, the unit made an excellent showing.

The wing was charged with tactical operations in support of USAFE and NATO, with air defense as a secondary mission.

To reflect this change, the unit was redesignated the 81st Fighter-Bomber Wing and traded in its North American F-86 Sabres for the Republic F-84F Thunderstreak.

On 8 July 1958 Bentwaters was operated as "twin base" with RAF Woodbridge and as a single unit under the newly designated 81st Tactical Fighter Wing.

The F-101 was configured as a fighter bomber, intended to carry a single nuclear weapon for use against battlefield targets such as airfields.

The squadron flew the Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter at Alconbury, however after 12 years of intense flying, by 1988 the fleet of aggressor F-5Es was getting rather worn out as a result of sustained exposure to the rigors of air combat maneuvering.

An A-10 forward operating location was established at Sembach Air Base West Germany on 1 September 1978 when Det.

Revetments and a dozen hardened aircraft shelters were built and A-10A Single-seat forward air control versions began operations at Sembach during May 1979.

A-10s and support resources routinely rotated to these Forward Operating Locations from RAF Bentwaters for training and Tactical Evaluations.

When Hurricane Katrina barrelled into the gulf coast as a category 4 storm, the eye was only approximately 30 miles off a head-on hit with Keesler Air Force Base.

Because of the hurricane, all students and non-essential personnel of the 81st were evacuated to other Air Force bases, effectively shutting down the training wing.

The title "Operation Dragon Comeback" was coined by Master Sergeant Terence J. Scott (Retired Firefighter from the 81st Civil Engineer Squadron).

[3] In less than a month, Keesler managed to clean up, pump out, dig through, and resuscitate the ailing training wing and bring it back to full mission readiness.