KCBD Lubbock Flies on the MC-130J with 9th Special Operations Squadron at Cannon Air Force Base

Near the Texas-New Mexico Border is Cannon Air Force Base, home of the 27th Special Operations Wing. Just west of Clovis, it’s dubbed the “mothership” of one of its assigned specialized aircraft, the MC-130J Commando II, which is flown by the 9th Special Operations Squadron.

“We are the largest MC-130J squadron,” Lt. Colonel Michael Roy said. “We support a variety of missions worldwide. When you think about what we do in the Special Operations community, you think about supporting Special Operation forces globally but we do a number of other missions when it comes to any type of crisis.”

Lt. Col. Roy is the Operations Officer for the 9th SOS, currently made up of around 150 personnel. He told KCBD the Squadron has responded to the Haiti earthquake, Hurricane Katrina, the Fukushima nuclear disaster as well as the tsunami in Thailand.

“Our squadron, along with the MC-130J community, has been continuously deployed since 2001,” Roy said. “We have folks out there today doing what our nation asks of us. We fly a lot. We train a lot, so our folks are flying one to two times a week, which is a pretty big venture.”

“Rest assured that the professional women and men of the 9th Special Operations Squadron, the 27th Special Operations Wing, are doing they need to do to go get the mission done on behalf of our nation,” Lt. Colonel Roy said.