The second open house of JaboG 36 took place on June 22, 1964, with the sister unit JaboG 31 “Boelke” presented for the first time, the new fighter of the Luftwaffe, the Lockheed F-104G “Starfighter” single seat aircraft in the fighter bomber role and TF-104G double seater in the training role. These had flown from Nörvenich since mid-1962 and were soon to take over from the F-84F “Thunderstreak” at Hopsten. The new aircraft of JaboG 36, the “Starfighter”, had been offered to the Federal Republic of Germany by Lockheed in 1957, as a small, light and simple day fighter. Following the contract in March 1959, the aircraft was to be developed into a complex high performance fighter-bomber. Besides the conventional fighter-bomber role, it could be used for nuclear strike, thanks to its highly developed all-weather navigational System and weapons computer.

It was February 2, 1965 when the Kommodore Oberstleutnant Lothar Kmitta landed the first Hopsten “Starfighter” coded “DF-101” for JaboG 36 (DF- was used to identify all Hopsten based aircraft while the first digit after the dash identified the squadron). In 1968 the well known four digit tactical code was introduced into the German Air Force. Thus, the code no longer identified the wing but the type of aircraft in Luftwaffe service. The delivery flight of the “Starfighter” took place from Manching's WTD 61 and commenced the era of the supersonic fighter-bomber in the region of Westphalia. It took nearly two years from the initial delivery until the planned full complement of 52 aircraft was complete. The unit was declared operational to NATO in December 1967. During the six previous years the unit had flown more than 50.000 hours on the F-84F “Thunderstreak” .The young unit had also suffered its share of accidents with eight pilots losing their lives and an equal number of aircraft having been destroyed.
For ten years the most beautiful and elegant fighter ever built was to grace the skies above the NATO-Airbase Hopsten/Dreierwalde. “Manned missile” was the name airmen gave to the F-104G “Starfighter”, that was capable of Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound) and cost about 6 million DM. Although tarnished by a series of crashes and dubbed by the media as “Widow Maker”, the Starfighter was considered to be a safe aircraft by the Hopsten pilots. Compared to the previous aircraft, the F-84F “Thunderstreak” JaboG 36 lost nine aircraft and six pilots in the 10 years of operation of the F-104G “Starfighter”, thus a lower accident rate.

On October 25, 1966, the Inspector General of the Luftwaffe, Lieutenant General Johannes Steinhoff, formally baptised the housing and administration buildings at the Schorlemerstrasse in Rheine with the name General-Wever-Kaserne. The Luftwaffe chose the name of the first Chief of Staff of the Luftwaffe who was killed in a plane crash in 1936 for his organizational abilities and his strategic farsightedness during the rebuilding of the Luftwaffe.
To fulfil the new NATO-doctrine of “Flexible Response” of 1967, which included the use of tactical nuclear weapons, a detachment of more than 100 American airmen was based at Hopsten AB. For several years they lived with their families in the village of Dreierwalde. During war conditions, after release from the American President, the specialists would prepared the tactical nuclear weapons for JaboG 36 to deliver them on strike missions. This arrangement was standard with several allied air forces in Europe.
A separate ORA - facility (Quick Reaction Alert) was set-up on the air base especially for this task that was sealed by a double fence and the entrance was subject to strict security checks. Within this area were hangars with doors opening in the front back, housing the aircraft ready for take-off. Also, a building was provided with living and sleeping quarters for German and American security personnel, maintenance crews and the pilots for the QRA aircraft. The US-controlled nuclear weapons were stored at the ammunition storage at Uthuisen. The weapons were designated “Special Weapons” and were replaced every three months. They were airlifted from a US depot within Germany to the German F-104G bases by Douglas C-124” Globemaster”. The transport of the “Special Weapons” from the storage at Uthuisen to the readied aircraft was practiced in a monthly drill exercise with training rounds (inert bombs).

Employing up to 150 security personnel of the unit's own “Sicherungsstaffel-S” (Security Squadron), each time the 3 km transfer between the ammunition storage at Uthuisen and the air base took place, the path was cordoned off hermetically. The column started to move with the “Special Weapon” being either simulated by the exercise round Mk106 or the training bombs BDU-8 or BDU-12, using a 4x4 Unimog towing the trailer. Sometimes a routine exercise took place involving local emergency response forces simulating a nuclear accident with the “Special Weapon”. After the transport of the “Special Weapon” from the ammunition depot at Uthuisen to the QRA area, four German airmen, the loading team for the nuclear device, would load the weapon onto the central fuselage Station of the QRA F-104G “Starfighter”. The time required for the loading of the nuclear weapon was 30 minutes. The final activation of the “Special Weapon” was the task of the US airmen. Specialists of the 50th Bomb Detachment loaded the warhead and held the exclusive initialising codes.
An F-104G “Starfighter” loaded with a “Special Weapon” and four external drop tanks had a low - level range of 1.300 km. The tactical targets like troop concentrations of the second wave in the area of the former Warsaw Pact would have been briefed to the crews shortly before take-off.

1. / JaboG 36 was to provide two F-104G “Starfighters” plus a spare in 15 minutes readiness in the ORA area. The task was to be in the air with two mission ready and loaded aircraft within at least 15 minutes after the alert went off. All other Luftwaffe F-104G units were to keep four aircraft. plus a spare in QRA readiness, all loaded with four drop tanks. All of these Special aircraft did not field the Vulcan canon but had an extra fuel cell installed into the gun bay with the muzzle opening being faired over. Certainly not a strategic highlight was the formation of the units own band named “Starfighter 36” on January 5, 1969, that made all the unit's members feel proud. This unique band soon gained a very good reputation in German military circles. Besides unit events, the band played at other high-calibre events like the Air Force Ball and the Press Ball as well as on bases on the Bundeswehr abroad. They even performed in Turkey! The Military Attaché of the German Embassy in Ankara had contracted “Starfighter 36” to play on a reception in honour of the German Secretary of State. Sadly, “Starfighter 36” doesn't exist any longer. But the former members of the band are said to have re-formed for a concert in Neuenkirchen near Rheine in 2002/2003 with great success.
The task of the 2nd squadron of the wing remained unchanged. Its task was to maintain combat readiness with conventional weapons and to “Europeanise” the newly trained German F-104G pilots returning from training in the USA. In early 1972, changes within NATO led to the abandonment of the strike role. 1st Squadron assumed the fighter-bomber role by only conventional means. The US personnel for the “Special Weapons” departed Dreierwalde during that same year.

Since introduction to the Luftwaffe in the summer of 1962, inexperience on the new complicated aircraft and an insufficient ejection seat (the Lockheed C-2) had led to a high loss rate of pilots and aircraft. Of the 916 Starfighter aircraft delivered to the Luftwaffe, more than 250 were lost, which led to the media nickname of “Widow Maker”. Headlines like “Courageous Pilot prevents Disaster” or “Two Pilots of JaboG 36 didn't return to their Base after their Mission” reflected the sense of duty and the courage of the JaboG 36 crews during their fateful hours in the local press. Only improved conditions, increased experience of the maintenance crews, better training of the pilots and the introduction of the Martin-Baker GQ-7 ejection seat led to a reduction of the crashes from the summer of 1967 onwards. Urgently necessary repairs to the runway of Hopsten AB in 1971, led to the Wing deploying 23 Starfighter aircraft for three months to the Luftwaffe's training center at Beja AB (Portugal) together with the appropriate equipment and vehicles. The deployed aircraft returned to Hopsten AB in time for the celebrations of the tenth anniversary of JaboG 36, as well as the achieving 50.000 flying hours on the F-104G “Starfighter”. After transferring out the two trusted Piaggio P. 149, JaboG 36 received two Dornier Do 28D-2 aircraft in 1972, referred to as “Farmers Eagles”. They served the unit for 20 years as liaison aircraft and light transports. Much to the regret on many pilots and crew Chiefs the Luftwaffe did not plan for a successor of this aerial taxi. Until 1992, it was possible to quickly fly technical personnel arid smaller spare parts with the Do 28D-2 to an aircraft that had been forced to land at another base due to a technical problem. From then on the transfer of personnel and parts had to be done via road transport.