The Royal Netherlands Air Force received its first F-104 on the 12^th of December 1962. That day the D-8013 and D-8022 were handed over to 306 Squadron at Twenthe Air Base. In total the Klu received 138 F-104s, 18 TF-104G’s 18 RF-104G’s and 102 F-104G’s. Later 10 F-104G’s were converted to RF-104G but received no internal recce system but only the Orpheuspod, which replaced also the internal reccesystem of the original RF-104G’s.

25 F-104’s had been delivered under the Militairy Assistance Program (MAP) and were build by Fiat in Turin, Italy. These F-104’s could be easy recognized by there serial number beginning with D-66..

Five operational squadrons flew with the 104 namely, 306 squadron, from December 1962 till February 1983 in the tactical reconnaissance roll, 311 squadron, from March 1965 till August 1982, and 312 squadron, from October 1965 till June 1984, in the fighter bomber roll from Volkel Air Base. 322 and 323 Squadron used their Starfighters in the interceptor roll from August 1963 till 1980. There were also some conversion units in the KLu flying mainly with TF-104G.

The first conversion unit was the “Dutch Masters” stationed at Twente Air Base but this unit was decommissioned  on January 1st 1969. The TF-104G’s were then assigned to the  “TCA”(Training en Conversie Afdeling) at Leeuwarden and “CAV” (Conversie Afdeling Volkel) at off course Volkel.

On March 15^th 1978 after the last Starfighter conversion at Leeuwarden the TCA was the first squadron which retired the 104. On 16^th May 1979 645 Squadron was founded. This squadron received some Starfighters and would be flying with them until 322 and 323 were operational  on the F-16. The remaining F-104’s were transferred to Volkel. Turkey was interested to buy 25 surplus F-104’s from the KLu and they were delivered on 25^th August 1980(12), 15^th December 1980(11) and the final 2 in 1982. Meanwhile the US decided that the remaining 16 under the MAP delivered F-104 had to be transferred to Greece (10) and Turkey (6). The Greek Starfighters were deliverd on 7th May 1982(4) and 23th June 1982.

Meanwhile Volkel was in the middle of its F-16 conversion, the first Squadron to receive F-16 was 311 which transferred al there F-104’s to 312 squadron which had at that time 40 F-104. In February 1984 the final RF-104G flight was made so the KLu had a great surplus of  104’s Turkey was interested in buying an extra 23 Starfighters. But only 22 were handed over because the D-8103 crashed  before been handed over to the TuAF. On  30^th November 1983 a remarkable delivery flight took place, that day 13 (T)F-104G were flown to Turkey but only 11 made the delivery flight. The D-8052 crashed an hour after take off and the D-5807 crashed while on approach to Izmir (Turkey).

On 1th June 1984 the last 104 squadron converted to the F-16 and a final but never official squadron was founded, the UFO flight (Uitfaserings onderdeel). Pilots who were not converted yet on the F-16 could stay current on jets. But on 21th November 1984 it was al over. That day the D-5803,D-5810,D-5804,D-8258  and D-8256 made a final flight pass along al the KLu  Airbases.