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''Peace is the dream of the wise;
War is the
history of man."
Opens in own window...hit close to return to VFW Site
The only "WINNER" in war is
"DEATH"
The Survivors
are scarred for "Life"
The September 11, 2001 attacks (also referred
to as 9/11 or September the 11th in the U.S. or the 11th September attacks elsewhere) were a series of coordinated attacks
upon the United States of America carried out on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, in which a total of nineteen hijackers simultaneously took control of four U.S. domestic
commercial airliners.
The hijackers crashed two planes into the World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York City—one into each of the two tallest towers, about 18 minutes apart. Within two hours, both towers
collapsed. The hijackers crashed the third aircraft into the U.S. Department of Defense headquarters, the Pentagon, in Arlington County, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed into a rural field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, following apparent passenger resistance. The official
count records 2,986 deaths in the attacks, including the 19 hijackers.
After 911 our sworn enemy was Bin Laden
and the Talaban...these were the ones responsibe for the horror and tradgey of the day...America was in the state of shock...how
could this have happened here in the United States...Our military was dispatched to Afganastan in pursuite of these enemies...The
Talaban took massive hits and soon became an emeny on the run for their life....and so did their leader Bin Laden...Their
traning camps were destroyed....many Talaban were captured or killed but Bin Laden escaped and fled to the hills...at one
time we did have him cornered but he again fled undetected...
The man who actually did represent a grave threat to our way of life is
out running and planning...Iraq has been bombed and bombed and thousands upon thousands have died both civilian and military
personel...the amount of wounded can not even be imagined and still we are no closer to capturing Bin Laden then we were three
years ago.
The initial military objectives of Operation Enduring Freedom,
as articulated by President George W. Bush in his Sept. 20th Address to a Joint Session of Congress and his Oct. 7th address to country, include the destruction of terrorist training camps
and infrastructure within Afghanistan, the capture of al Qaeda leaders, and the cessation of terrorist activities in Afghanistan.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld stated
in an Oct. 7th DoD News Briefing that US objectives were to make clear to Taliban leaders
that the harboring of terrorists is unacceptable, to acquire intelligence on al Qaeda and Taliban resources, to develop relations
with groups opposed to the Taliban, to prevent the use of Afghanistan as a safe haven for terrorists, and to destroy the Taliban
military allowing opposition forces to succeed in their struggle. Finally, military force would help facilitate the delivering
of humanitarian supplies to the Afghan people.
The first act of America's war on terrorism in 2001 was a blockbuster
victory. As the twin towers still smouldered, US bombers and Afghan rebels drove the Taliban from power.
Operation Anaconda
Operation Anaconda is a force of
about 2,000 soldiers of which more than half are U.S. conventional forces, Special Forces, and Special Operating Forces commanded
by Major General Buster Hagenbeck of the 10th Mountain Division, headquartered at Fort Drum, New York. Coalition forces from
Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, and Norway joined United States troops in Operation ANACONDA. Operation Anaconda
was part of the ongoing effort in Afghanistan to root out Taliban and al-Qaida forces holed up in the Pakitia Province area
of the country.
Operation Anaconda began late Friday
evening on March 1, 2002 in the mountainous Shahi Khot region south of the city of Gardez in eastern Afghanistan. U.S. forces
including the insertion of Special Operating Forces from several other nations set up observation posts. The 10th Mountain
Division and the 101st Airborne Division along with Afghan forces had units inserted into the objective area covering some
60 to 70 square miles. Rough terrain, an altitude of 8,000 to 12,000 feet, and a temperature in the evenings between 15 and
20 degrees °F, makes a very tough operating environment for soldiers
U.S. special forces ride horseback
as they work with members of the Northern Alliance on Nov. 12, 2001.
When the Shahi Khot battle opened
early March 2 (Afghan time), al Qaeda troops entrenched along ridges and mountainside caves used heavy machine-gun, mortar
and rocket-propelled grenade fire to immobilize allied Afghan forces and to pin down U.S. soldiers as they disembarked from
helicopters.
At the time Operation Anaconda
was the largest offensive of the five-month-old war.
On March 17, 2002 Operation ANACONDA
concluded; a total of eight American servicemen had been killed and 82 wounded in action.
By October 20, 2001 US and Coalition forces had destroyed virtually all Taliban air defenses and had
conducted a highly successful direct action mission on the residence of Mullah Omar in the middle of the Taliban capital,
Qandahar. During this time frame Special Forces detachments linked up with Anti-Taliban leaders and coordinated operational
fires and logistics support on multiple fronts. Twenty days later, the provincial capital of Mazar-e Sharif fell. In rapid
succession, Herat, Kabul, and Jalalabad followed. By mid- December, US Marines had secured Qandahar Airport and the Taliban
capital was in the hands of Anti-Taliban forces. Within weeks the Taliban and Al Qaida were reduced to isolated pockets of
fighters. On 22 December Franks traveled to Kabul to attend a ceremony marking the inauguration of the Afghan interim government
-- 78 days after the beginning of combat operations.
By mid-March 2002, the Taliban
had been removed from power and the Al Qaida network in Afghanistan had been destroyed. The US continued to exploit detainees
and sensitive sites for their intelligence value in order to prevent future terrorist attacks and to further US understanding
of Al Qaida -- their plans, membership, structure, and intentions. The US was investigating each site to confirm or deny the
existence of research into, or production of, chemical, biological, or radiological weapons. Coalition forces continued to
locate and destroy remaining pockets of Taliban and Al Qaida fighters and to search for surviving leadership
The purpose of Operation Enduring
Freedom was to target Osama bin Laden, suspected of planning and funding the September
11, 2001 Terrorist Attack, and his Terrorist network al-Qaida, as well as the Taliban government in Afghanistan
Operations would involve the full
weight of America's national power, and would include significant contributions from the international community. By 2002
the coalition had grown to more than 68 nations, with 27 nations having representatives at CENTCOM headquarters.
When I take action, I'm not going to fire a 2 million dollar missile at a 10 dollar
empty tent and hit a camel in the butt. It's going to be decisive.
George W. Bush
"Only the dead have seen the end
of war"
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