With the advent of the Cold War in the late 1940s and the formation of NATO, agreements were made to expand the United States military presence in western Europe.

The United States would eventually base combat aircraft and personnel in Belgium, England, France, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Turkey and West Germany.

In 1950, U.S. representatives began a series of discussions with the French to select air bases and negotiate the details of establishing a large USAF presence.

USAFE desired an air field in Alsace or Lorraine due to their eastern location near the Rhine River, but at the time, there were no existing airfields that could meet NATO requirements.

The agreed airfield site was west of the city of Phalsbourg, adjacent to French National Route N4 on gently rolling farmland.

By the spring of 1955 the runways, taxiways and hangars were constructed, however the base was barely habitable because few roads were paved and the utilities were not yet installed.

The design of the airfield was to space parked aircraft as far apart as possible by the construction of a circular Marguerite system of hardstands that could be revetted later with earth for added protection.

USAFE felt that with the Army developing similar capabilities in France and the limitations of the helicopter airlift missions at Phalsbourg, retaining the 23rd was not worth the costs, and the unit was inactivated on 8 January 1958.

The 10 helicopters at Phalsbourg and 2 from RAF Wethersfield were returned to CONUS, being assigned to Brookley AFB, the others being retained at Wheelus for range operations.

During May, the 10th TRW began receiving new RF-101A "Voodoos" from CONUS and the RF-84's squadrons were transferred to the 66th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing which was then based at Sembach AB also in Germany.

The 513th FIS flew the F-86D "Sabre", performing an all-weather air defense mission as part of the 406th Fighter-Bomber Wing.

The Squadron commander during that era was Col. Robert Rankin a member of the famed World War II 56th Fighter Group and the first ace in a day in the European theater.

With the departure of the F-86's Phalsbourg AB was again placed in a reserve status with the 7486th Air Base Group serving as the caretaker unit.

During its time in Europe, the 102nd participated in several USAF and NATO exercises, including a deployment to Leck Air Base, West Germany near the Danish border.

On 7 May 1962, Seventeenth Air Force directed that the 102nd TFW would deploy back to CONUS during the summer, and the 102nd TFW returned to the United States in July 1962, Regular USAF personnel, along with a group of ANG personnel who volunteered to remain on active duty formed the 480th Tactical Fighter Squadron of the newly activated 366th Tactical Fighter Wing.

After the departure of the 102nd TFW, a major refurbishing of the runway at Phalsbourg commenced, with the base closed to tactical aircraft operations until December.

On 7 March 1966, French President Charles De Gaulle announced that France would withdraw from NATO's integrated military structure.