 It was not manned until the following February and did not start receiving aircraft until September 1978.It soon began air refueling support for all USAF operations, deployments and redeployments, as well as participating in NATO exercises.Operations staff and maintenance personnel were permanently assigned, but aircraft, aircrews and crew chiefs were assigned on a temporary duty basis to the 11th Strategic Group for the European Tanker Task Force on a rotational basis.