18th Airlift Squadron The 18th Airlift Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit . Its last assignment was to the 305th Operations Group , Air Mobility Command , stationed at McGuire Air Force Base , New Jersey . It was inactivated on 1 July 1995 . History . The early years . From activation in April until July 1942 the 18th ferried aircraft from the United States to the South Pacific and Southwest Pacific theaters of operations . Most flights originated from McClellan Field and proceeded via the Hawaiian Islands , Christmas Island , Canton Island , Fiji Islands , and New Caledonia , to Australia . From July 1942 until disbandment in October 1943 , the 18th serviced outbound aircraft , briefed crews of these aircraft and controlled flights until they reached Hawaii . Reactivated on 18 Jul 1954 , at McGuire AFB , New Jersey , the squadron came under the Military Air Transport Service ( MATS ) . It became operational in September , transporting passengers , cargo and mail in C - 118 s to South America , Europe , Africa , Asia and Australia , as well as within the US . It participated in operations , exercises , and maneuvers of the US armed services and transported important US and foreign officials . It also provided airlift support for the United Nations ( UN ) . In December 1956 and January 1957 the unit airlifted over 9 , 700 Hungarian refugees from Rhein Main AB , West Germany to the United States . In 1961 the 18th began flying C - 135 s . The first major deployment with these new aircraft was to the Arctic with 2 , 300 Army personnel for cold weather training . In 1963 , it participated in the airlift of UN forces and cargo to the Congo and airlifted personnel and cargo to New Zealand in support of Antarctic operations . It changed in 1965 from mostly European flights to airlift support of forces in South Vietnam . It then participated in an airlift to the Dominican Republic in March 1965 with US forces to preserve order . On 1 Feb 1966 , shortly after being designated the 18th Military Airlift Squadron ( MAS ) , all personnel were reassigned , and on 15 Jun 1966 the squadron inactivated . The modern era . The squadron became a C - 141 unit when activated in July and organized in August 1968 . On 15 August , it flew its first mission to Southeast Asia ( SEA ) . Most regular scheduled flights until 1969 were to SEA in support of the Vietnam War . Typically , the trip from McGuire AFB and back took from five to seven days . Between March and June 1972 , flights to SEA took a major share of C - 141 missions . With the exception of these missions , the 18th MAS usually flew over the Atlantic to Greenland , Europe , the Middle East and Africa . Each year from activation in 1968 to 1974 , the squadron resupplied scientific stations in the Antarctic involved in Operation Deep Freeze . For three or four months each year , between October and February , it flew to New Zealand from McGuire , and then shuttled from New Zealand to the Antarctic . The 18th was frequently involved in the airlift for the US Army ’ s airborne exercises and supported other US services and NATO forces . It provided airlift support for Presidential and Vice - Presidential trips within the US and overseas . It supported NASA ’ s Apollo program until 1971 . The squadron frequently flew humanitarian missions for the relief of victims of earthquakes , hurricanes , floods and snowstorms ; this included flights to Pakistan in 1970 and 1971 ; Managua , Nicaragua , in 1972 and 1973 ; Guatemala , Italy and Turkey in 1976 ; the Dominican Republic in 1978 ; and the Yemen Arab Republic in December 1982 . It provided , on occasion , airlift for the US State Department and in April 1972 transported two musk oxen to China in exchange for two giant pandas . On 13 and 14 April of that year it airlifted supplies to Israel in support of that country ' s defense against its Arab neighbors . It also provided the airlift of UN Peace - Keeping forces to the Middle East after the ceasefire , between 19 November and 16 December 1973 . The squadron participated , between April and June 1975 , in the airlift of Vietnamese refugees from SEA to the United States . It airlifted French and Belgian troops to Zaire in May and June 1978 to protect and evacuate Europeans threatened by civil war . In Ju1y - October 1980 , it helped airlift an F - 4 wing to Egypt in support of first the joint USAF / Egyptian Air Force exercise . On 9 – 12 May 1983 , the first all - woman C - 141 crew , members of the 18th MAS , flew from McGuire AFB to Rhein Main AB , Germany on an aeromedical evacuation mission . Inactivated in July 1995 as part of the retirement of the C - 141 Starlifter .