From their base at RAF Mildenhall, the 7th Special Operations Squadron is able to deploy or extract troops from hostile, sensitive, or otherwise undesirable locations.

Later, as the 167th Liaison Squadron, the unit served in the European Theater with Ninth Air Force flying courier flights with army group headquarters in areas to the rear of the front lines during 10 Mar – May 1945.

Joint/Combined Exercise FLINTLOCK I was conducted in the fall of 1968 and consisted of four sub-exercises located in West Germany, Greece, Spain, and Denmark.

Major Paul C. Jones was the instructor pilot, Captain Randolph S. Crammer was the co-pilot and Staff Sergeant Donald J. Bissell was the flight engineer.

From 28 August until the end of November 1970, a 13-man 7th SOS crew, commanded by Major Irl L. Franklin, participated in the preparation and execution of the Son Tay Raid, which was an attempt to liberate POWs held in North Vietnam.

In September 1972, while deployed for Operation Flintlock V, the squadron was notified by USAFE that it would leave Ramstein the following March and move to Rhein-Main AB near the city of Frankfurt, Germany.

Movement Order Number 23, dated 5 December 1972, directed that the 7th SOS move to Rhein-Main and be in place there NLT 15 March 1973.

The 7th SOS's MC-130Es, code-named 'Combat Talon', were no less mysterious and were also striking to look at with their matte black camouflage scheme and two large hooks on the nose.

One of the most bizarre sightings dates from January 1976 when a traveller from West Berlin saw a low-flying C-130 over the Transitstrasse, the transit route, near Magdeburg in the DDR.

[3] Granted it was flying perfectly legally in the air corridor at the time of the sighting, the fact that it was a black MC-130E from the mysterious 7th SOS does make one a trifle suspicious that it was on a clandestine mission.

When the 2nd Air Division was inactivated, the 39th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Wing at Eglin AFB, Florida picked up the 7th SOS for training and logistics support.

The 7th SOS's MC-130Es, code-named Combat Talon, were no less mysterious and were also striking to look at with their matte black camouflage scheme and two large hooks on the nose.

The 7th SOS was reassigned to the 39th Aerospace Rescue & Recovery Wing, on 1 February 1987 and to the 352d Special Operations Group, on 1 December 1992 relocating in the process to RAF Alconbury, England.

The date marked the official move of the squadron, but remaining Combat Talon I crews and maintenance personnel continued to operate out of Germany.

Ironically, four months later, in February 1993, the entire squadron deployed back to Rhein-Main AB, Germany in support of Operation PROVIDE PROMISE.

While there, members of the unit conceived and tested a unique delivery technique for the free-fall airdrop of individual Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) over Bosnia-Herzegovina.

In October 1993, 7th SOS aircraft and personnel completed an historic mission to the former Soviet Central Asian states of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan, transiting Russia and Georgia.

The same energetic quest for lucrative training locations resulted in a return to Greece and night low-level routes in Spain.

On 12 January 1995, the squadron moved to RAF Mildenhall, United Kingdom where the 352d Special Operations Group consolidated all of its assigned forces.

In 2005, one of the squadron's MC-130H aircraft (Callsign Wrath 11) crashed while on an NVG low-level training flight in southern Albania killing all aboard.

[5] On 8 January 2015 the last MC-130H departed the 7 SOS returning to Hurlburt Field where they'll continue to fly and make an impact for special operations.

[6] Today, the 7th SOS continues to maintain its traditional ties with the United Kingdom, Norway, Germany, Spain, Italy and France.