the beginning of a new era in Naval Patrol Aviation. During the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 and more encompassing, during the entirety of the Cold War between American and Soviet forces, both the P2V and P-3A became nationally well-known due to their surveillance of Soviet ships in the Atlantic Ocean, leading to a safe resolution. Fleet Air Wing Five aircraft also played an important part in America’s early crewed space programs in 1965 and 1966, helping to locate Mercury and Gemini capsules after splashdowns. In 1966, Wing Five began deployments in the Western Pacific. Based at Naval Station Sangley Point in the Philippines, squadrons flew patrol and combat missions in support of Seventh Fleet operations in South East Asia throughout the years of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. On August 2 of 1990, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein launched an invasion on the neighboring country of Kuwait. In response, the United States launched a wholly defensive mission to the Middle East named Operation Desert Shield. Patrol Squadron Twenty Three was the first East Coast maritime patrol squadron in-theater for Operation Desert Shield, providing maritime surveillance throughout the Red Sea. Patrol Squadron EIGHT participated in joint operations during Desert Storm, flying combat sorties in the effort to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi forces. Post Cold War At the end of the Cold War in 1991, many maritime patrol squadrons were reduced or relocated. Combat Wing Five disestablished Patrol Squadron 44 in May 1991, Patrol Squadron 23 in December 1994, and Patrol Squadron 11 in August 1997. During the mid-1990s with the breakup and subsequent conflict in the former Republic of Yugoslavia, Patrol Squadrons 8, 10, 11, 26 from NAS Brunswick were called upon to fly countless sorties in the Adriatic Sea in support of Operation Sharp Guard. Of specific note, Patrol Squadron 10 was the first VP squadron to conduct offensive missile attacks since Vietnam in the 1970s. In 1994, 10,138 enlisted, officers, civilian employees, and family members called NAS Brunswick home. In the early years of the new millennium, squadrons home ported at NAS Brunswick continued to fulfill their missions by flying intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and maritime patrol sorties in Operation Joint Guardian in Kosovo and Operation Deliberate Forge in Bosnia in support of U.S. and NATO forces. Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the U.S., those same squadrons began flying missions in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)