Subic Bay, Philippines and participating in exercises Valiant Blitz in the Philippines, Amphibious Squadron Seven spent almost a week at Pattaya Beach, from 22 to 27 December, before moving on to Singapore where she arrived on the 30th. After operations in Diego Garcia where Amphibious Squadron Seven's embarked marines carried out a landing exercise between 28 and 30 January, they headed south east for exercise Valiant Usher 81-3 off Lancelin, Western Australia with units of the Australian Military. After Valiant Usher off Western Australia, VMA-513 and Amphibious Squadron One conducted an R&R visit to Perth/Fremantle, Western Australia from 8–13 February 1981. The squadron later took part in exercises Team Spirit 81 and Valiant Flex 81–2 at Busan South Korea. HMM-265 (REIN) arrived back at MCAS Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii before or about 16 April 1981 with the detachments arriving home shortly after. Gulf War & the 1990s In 1990 and 1991 the squadron was attached to the 5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Marine Air Group 50. During Operation Desert Shield, they took part in Operation Sea Soldier IV the largest troop lift ever in Marine Corps history in the country of Oman. The squadron then waited on amphibious shipping in the Persian Gulf awaiting the start of combat operations. The squadron was part of the 5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade's amphibious feint into Kuwait, which succeeded in drawing the attention of Saddam Hussein's forces away from the actual attack that occurred inland. Upon conclusion of hostilities in the Persian Gulf region, the squadron returned to Hawaii. While en route, they were called upon to provide humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to the country of Bangladesh during Operation Sea Angel. During the operation they flew 770 hours in ten days. The squadron had little time to rest before deploying to Okinawa in October 1991. During this deployment the Dragons provided support to HMX-1 for the Presidential visit to Tokyo. The squadron was then called to Cambodia in support of Operation Full Accounting in 1992, where they assisted in the recovery of remains of U.S. servicemen lost during the Vietnam War. The squadron was relocated entirely to Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Okinawa, Japan in early 1995. Heightened tensions in the Persian Gulf during the fall of 1998 brought the squadron back on a no-notice deployment as the Aviation Combat Element (ACE) for the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit. They participated in Operation Desert Fox in