In the meantime, the 153rd Tactical Airlift Group expanded to regularly flying missions with the United States Southern Command out of Howard Air Force Base, Panama, as part of Operation Phoenix Oak. From supplying embassies in Central and South America, to searching for sinking ships in the middle of tropical storms, the Wyoming C-130s and aircrews carried out military and humanitarian missions. Those missions continued through Operation Just Cause, the United States invasion of Panama in 1989–90.