As AMC's sole NAF, 18 AF ensures readiness and sustainment of approximately 33,000 active duty, Air Force Reserve, and civilian Airmen at 12 wings.

The 618 AOC (TACC) is responsible for planning, scheduling, and tracking aircraft performing airlift, aerial refueling, and aeromedical evacuation operations around the world.

[11] It serves as an Air Operations Center (AOC) for AMC, executing missions assigned by the United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM).

They created a highly efficient organization to centralize command and control operations that previously resided within numbered air forces and airlift divisions.

The theater troop carrier mission was expanded rapidly during the Korean War when many of these reserve units were called into active service and assigned directly to HQ TAC.

Augmented troop carrier forces in the Far East and Europe provided trained crews and replacement personnel to units in the Korean War.

The next year, 18 AF C-119s from the 483rd Troop Carrier Wing (and flown by civilian crews employed by Civil Air Transport) airdropped supplies to besieged French paratroops at Dien Bien Phu, Indochina.

Helicopters of the 310th Troop Carrier Squadron, operating from two icebreakers, provided support airlift to the U.S. Navy in the HIRAN (High Precision Air Navigation) project in January 1956.

A combat controller of the 1st Aerial Port Squadron performed the first parachute jump at the South Pole in November 1956 (in order to determine the necessary corrections for ongoing airdrops of equipment).

The command was also instrumental in the development of the aerial port concept, including techniques and equipment for loading troop carrier aircraft and the airdrop of cargo.

The command organized the first rotary assault group in the U.S. Air Force before losing the mission to the U.S. Army and served as an advisory body for reserve troop carrier wings.

A realignment of Troop Carrier forces in 1957 led to the reassignment of 18 AF's C-124 wings to MATS and its headquarters was moved to James Connally AFB, Texas on 1 September.

By the time Lt Gen William Welser III [16] was finally confirmed as commander a mere two months after reactivation, the 18 AF headquarters staff numbered 30 (of which more than half was the legal office).

One of the most demanding of those missions came when Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast in August 2005, eventually causing more than 1,800 deaths and nearly $80 billion in damage over an area of approximately 90,000 square miles.

From the initial response through recovery, 18 AF Airmen were part of a massive total force team that flew more than 300 missions that moved nearly 1,800 sick and injured hurricane victims to safety and airlifted more than 4,000 tons of relief supplies to the stricken area.

A mere two years afterward, the command also flexed its muscle overseas with the deployment of approximately 1,500 Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles to Iraq in only four months.

In the wake of Japan's 2011 earthquake and tsunami, the command orchestrated efforts transporting hundreds of tons of humanitarian relief while assuring the safe return of thousands of military families back to the U.S.

[citation needed] Since that time, the command has continued to rapidly respond to crises across the globe whether delivering relief supplies to Americans stricken by Superstorm Sandy, moving troops and equipment in the face of provocations by North Korea and Syria, or supporting international efforts battling extremists in Mali and the Central African Republic.