It was last active as the 21st Expeditionary Mobility Task Force (21 EMTF), stationed at the McGuire AFB entity of Joint Base McGuire–Dix–Lakehurst until its inactivation in 2012.

Reporting through Eighteenth Air Force, the EMTF extended existing AMC infrastructure, through both en route employment and rapid forward deployment capabilities.

Its mission was to command and assess the combat readiness of assigned air mobility forces over the Atlantic half of the globe in support of Global Reach.

21 EMTF's strategic airlift force included the C-5 Galaxy, C-17 Globemaster III and the C-130 Hercules, aircraft, used to move cargo and passengers worldwide.

[citation needed] In Operation Just Cause, Twenty-first Air Force units conducted the largest night airdrop since World War II, leading to the successful seizure of Panama.

Twenty-first Air Force units flew relief missions after Hurricane Hugo (1989) and Andrew (1992), earthquakes in Armenia and San Francisco, and many other natural disasters.