Royal Air Force Germany used Oldenburg as a frontline fighter base through the 1950s, when the proximity of Soviet armor in East Germany made the Cold War feel less abstract than it would in later decades. No. 234 Squadron reformed at Oldenburg on 1 August 1952, flying de Havilland Vampire FB.5 and FB.9 fighter-bombers and later Canadair Sabre F.4s before moving to RAF Geilenkirchen in January 1954. No. 20 Squadron arrived in July 1952 and stayed until September 1957, operating Vampires, Sabres and finally Hawker Hunters. No. 26 Squadron held the line until disbanding in September 1957. The last RAF unit was No. 14 Squadron, which arrived in June 1955 with Hawker Hunter F.4s and F.6s and left for RAF Ahlhorn in September 1959. After that the RAF presence at Oldenburg was finished, and the base passed to the new West German air force.

In 1964 the Luftwaffe consolidated. Reconnaissance Squadron 54 was disbanded and Fighter Squadron 72, returning from its previous home at Leck, merged with what remained to form Fighter-Bomber Geschwader 43. The name reflected a doctrinal shift: the aircraft were no longer day fighters but ground-attack assets meant to slow a Warsaw Pact advance. The Geschwader sat under the 4th Air Force Division and initially flew the North American F-86 Sabre. In 1966 it converted to the Italian Fiat G.91, a compact and rugged subsonic strike jet that suited the dispersed-airfield doctrine NATO had adopted for surviving a first strike. The unit was renamed Leichtes Kampfgeschwader 43 in 1967 and renamed back to Jagdbombergeschwader 43 in 1979.

From 1981 the Alpha Jet flew from Oldenburg, the Franco-German trainer-strike aircraft that had replaced the G.91 across much of the Luftwaffe. The Alpha Jet years gave the base its most distinctive sound, a high clean whine that carried across the northern suburbs. In 1991, eighteen Alpha Jets from JaboG 43's 2nd Squadron deployed briefly to Turkey to bolster NATO defenses during the Gulf War, the only major operational deployment in the base's history. They returned home without seeing combat. Two years later the unit's mission was gone. With the Soviet threat dissolved and the Bundeswehr restructuring for a smaller post-Cold-War posture, JaboG 43 was decommissioned on 30 September 1993, and the airfield was officially de-dedicated on 1 November 1994.

An air base is more than its flying unit. Air Force Supply Group 22 stood up at Oldenburg in 1957 and reorganized in 1959 into Air Force Supply Regiment 6, whose staff moved into the city's Donnerschwee barracks. The Air Force Medical Squadron stayed on the base until 1993. The Sabre F-86 field shipyard handled engine and airframe work until 1966, when it switched over to the G.91. Air Force Shipyard 61 took over from 1981 through the Alpha Jet decade. From 1968 to 1991 the 3rd battery of Anti-Aircraft Missile Battalion 24 operated Nike air-defense missiles from the base, guarding the same airspace its jets flew through. After the flying mission ended, anti-aircraft missile group 24 stayed on through 2006 before relocating to Bad Sulze.

The former airfield lies just north of Oldenburg city, recognizable from the air by the unmistakable scar of a long disused runway running across what is otherwise rolling agricultural land. Parts of the site have been converted to industrial and commercial use. The old approach paths cross neighborhoods where homeowners can remember when Hunters rolled in low over the rooftops, and when older neighbors recall watching American-built Sabres in Luftwaffe markings practicing landings. The base served three air forces over three eras: the postwar British presence, the West German rebuild, and the Cold War endgame. None of those eras left a permanent flying mission. The base went from frontline NATO airfield to closed military installation in less than a year, an ending so quick that the surrounding city is still adjusting to the quiet.