Following the enemy attacks on New York and Washington in 2001, the wing deployed personnel and aircraft globally in operations associated with the War on Terror; on 11 September 2001, aircraft from 522d FS, 523d FS and 524th FS entered alert status. Less than two weeks after the 9/11 attacks, the 27 Civil Engineer Squadron deployed members to build a bare base in direct support of Operation Infinite Justice (later changed to Operation Enduring Freedom) as one of the first units deployed to the area of operations. In December 2002, the 524 FS deployed to Kuwait and participated in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, dropping nearly a million pounds of precision guided munitions, more than any other F-16 Block 40 squadron in history.