Its initial mission was to provide air defense, primarily in West Germany with its operational component, the 86th Fighter Group.

In June 1948, the 86th Fighter Wing was stationed at Neubiberg Air Base, near Munich when tensions with the Soviet Union culminated in the Berlin Blockade.

The 17th TRS and its McDonnell Douglas RF-4C Phantom IIs was reassigned to the 86th TFW from the inactivating 66th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing at RAF Upper Heyford, England.

The name issue was resolved as part of a USAFE command-wide effort to realign functions and streamline operations called Creek Action.

The 38th remained under the control of the 26 TRW by moving to Zweibrücken with the wing and the 7th Special Operations Squadron was transferred to Rhein-Main Air Base.

With the rest of the world, the members of the 86th watched the Communist Bloc countries of Eastern Europe with fascination as the events of the late 1989 unfolded.

The 86th TFW and Ramstein had just begun to absorb the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War when, in August 1990, the Iraqis invaded Kuwait.

In addition to serving as a central overflow hub for airlift traffic flying between the US and the Arabian Peninsula, Ramstein also established an intermediate engine repair facility for deployed F-16s, became a huge collection and distribution center for gulf-bound munitions, and on 15 January 1991, Ramstein AB's aeromedical staging facility activated a 150-bed hospital and blood transshipment center in Hangar 1.

The remaining 12 months of the 15-month AEF cycle was to be spent performing routine activities: training, participating in exercises, working on civilian or military education and spending time with their families.

During Atlas Response, a new capability was provided by a 37th AS C-130E, serial number 68-0938, the first USAF C-130 to undergo Keen Sage camera system modification.

The Keen Sage system was mounted in a metal-encased sphere, slightly larger than a basketball, housing three sophisticated video-capture lenses—a daylight television, a 955mm fixed focal length zoom and infrared in six fields—mounted on a pallet and strapped down in the cargo hold of the Hercules.

Atlas Response was the first operational deployment of a C-130 with the Keen Sage camera system, and the 37th C-130 flew 39 sorties using this new capability to search for displaced refugees so they could be provided humanitarian assistance.

Beginning on 17 August 2000, the 86th Wing moved a large contingent of American soldiers to a staging base in Skopje, Macedonia, then on to Kosovo as part of NATO's Immediate Ready Force.

In addition to the wing's "on call" status to support any European crisis, the wing positioned aircraft and medical personnel at emergency landing fields in Spain, Morocco and Banjul for every National Air and Space Administration (NASA) Space Shuttle launch, as well as flying missions for the On-Site Inspection Agency as part of the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty.

On 16 October 2002, President Bush signed the newly passed Congressional Resolution for "Authorization for the Use of Military Force Against Iraq", beginning Operation Iraqi Freedom.

In November 2002, 29 members of the 86th Civil Engineering Group were deployed to Ganci Air Base, Kyrgyzstan, to prepare for possible operations in Iraq.

Beginning 14 February, the 37th Airlift Squadron began using its Keen Sage equipped C-130s to conduct observation missions over Iraq in preparation for possible action.

Beginning 11 March 2003, the 86th AW's 38th Airlift (Provisional) Squadron, flying from Constanta, Romania, flew its first Operation Iraqi Freedom mission.

The 86th AW's effort began on 27 March 2003, when 20 members of the 86th Expeditionary Contingency Response Group departed from Aviano Air Base, Italy, and parachuted into Bashur airfield in northern Iraq, to prepare the field for airlift operations.

Over the subsequent weeks, the squadron's nineteen crews continued to fly round-the-clock operations averaging 4.5 missions per day.

A few days later, on 17 April at Bashur, the airfield the 86th CRG had secured and opened, and the first shipment of humanitarian aid arrived destined for residents near Kirkuk, Iraq.

Over 27 days of operations, the 86th Expeditionary Air Mobility Squadron received more than 370 fixed wing arrivals and departures, 4,200 personnel, and 21,500,000 pounds of cargo.

On 15 January 2004, as part of an arrangement intended to increase organizational efficiency based on a pattern used by several units in the states, the 86th AW was split.

In August 2004, the 86th AW increased it support of the Global War on Terrorism as wing personnel began to deploy as part of the Air Expeditionary Force "downrange", the euphuism for the Persian Gulf region or the areas in and around Afghanistan.

The deployment was similar to one undertaken in October 2004, and during the operation the C-130s carried the African Union troops on a thirteen-hour flight to Sudan where the African Union troops were to provide security for aid distribution operations in the area On 10 October 2005, Rhein-Main Air Base was officially closed and Ramstein Air Base now designated "The Gateway to Europe".

With the improving atmosphere between the governments of Libya and the United States, the 86th AW was told to proceed to the Libyan capitol, Tripoli, and recover the remains.

A team led by General Johnston flew to Libya on 1 March 2007, to recover the remains, and they were returned to their families at Ramstein.

The 496th ABS was to prove especially challenging, since it was on a Spanish Eurofighter base and had a relatively small (approximately 96 personnel) US contingent and relatively little in the way of support structure.

The 86th CST mainly consisted of local nationals, but there was soon a move to add a larger American contingent so it could perform operations outside of Germany.

[37] The 779th Expeditionary Airlift Flight was activated in January 2008 to administer a rotational deployment of two C-17 Globemaster IIIs to be based at Ramstein AB.