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Declassified

Global War on Terror

Operation
Enduring Freedom

7 October 2001 to 28 December 2014 // Afghanistan

Twenty-six days after the towers came down, the first bombs fell on Afghanistan. What followed ran longer than any war in American history: horse soldiers and B-52s, Anaconda, Marjah, Sangin, Keating, and a last flight out of Kabul twenty years later. If you were there, your unit is on this page.

  • 2,349U.S. deathsDoD casualty status, as of 16 Jul 2020
  • 20,149Wounded in actionDoD casualty status, as of 16 Jul 2020
  • 13 years7 Oct 2001 to 28 Dec 2014Then Freedom's Sentinel to 30 Aug 2021
Find your unitThe timeline

Who was there

Find your unit

Pick your branch and tap your unit. Every page below is built for the people who were on the ground, on the deck or in the air over Afghanistan. Not listed? Type it. It probably exists.

Unit not here? It probably exists anyway. Type it above, or request it.

The gear

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The timeline

Twenty years, the short version

Sixteen moments that explain the war. Each unit page has the long version.

  1. 7 Oct 2001
    Enduring Freedom

    The first strikes

    Kabul, Kandahar, Jalalabad

    Twenty-six days after 11 September, Tomahawks and strike aircraft from USS Enterprise and USS Carl Vinson hit Taliban and al-Qaeda targets across Afghanistan. Operation Enduring Freedom begins.

    USS Enterprise gear
  2. 19 Oct 2001
    First boots on the ground

    Objective Rhino and the ODAs

    South of Kandahar and the Panjshir

    3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment jumps onto a desert airstrip south of Kandahar. The same night, Special Forces ODAs 555 and 595 insert by helicopter to link up with the Northern Alliance.

    Ranger gear
  3. 9 Nov 2001
    Horse soldiers

    Mazar-i-Sharif

    Balkh Province

    ODA 595 rides with General Dostum's militia on horseback while B-52s work the Taliban lines. The city falls and the north unravels. Kabul is abandoned four days later.

    5th Group gear
  4. 25 Nov 2001
    First American killed

    Qala-i-Jangi and Camp Rhino

    Mazar-i-Sharif and south of Kandahar

    Prisoners rise up inside the Qala-i-Jangi fortress and CIA officer Johnny Micheal Spann becomes the first American killed in action in Afghanistan. The same day, 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit seizes Camp Rhino, the first conventional ground base in the country.

    15th MEU gear
  5. 12 to 17 Dec 2001
    Tora Bora

    Tora Bora

    Nangarhar Province

    Special Forces, CIA and Afghan militias push into the White Mountains after bin Laden. He walks out the back door into Pakistan. Ten more years.

  6. 2 to 18 Mar 2002
    Roberts Ridge

    Operation Anaconda

    Shah-i-Kot Valley, Paktia

    10th Mountain and 101st Airborne soldiers go into the Shah-i-Kot in the first big conventional fight of the war. On 4 March a SEAL falls from a Chinook on Takur Ghar and the Rangers and Air Force operators who go after him fight all day on Roberts Ridge. Seven Americans are killed on the mountain.

    10th Mountain gear
  7. 28 Jun 2005
    Lone Survivor

    Operation Red Wings

    Kunar Province

    A four-man SEAL recon team is compromised above Sawtalo Sar. Three die fighting; Lieutenant Michael Murphy earns the Medal of Honor calling for help in the open. The Chinook that answers, Turbine 33, is shot down with eight SEALs and eight Night Stalkers aboard. Marcus Luttrell walks out alone.

    160th SOAR gear
  8. 2007 to 2008
    Restrepo

    The Korengal

    Korengal Valley, Kunar

    Battle Company, 2-503rd holds Outpost Restrepo on a ridge in a six-mile valley that eats a tenth of the war's combat. Forty-two Americans die in the Korengal before it is handed back in 2010.

    2-503rd gear
  9. 13 Jul 2008
    Chosen Company

    Wanat

    Waygal Valley, Nuristan

    Two hundred fighters hit Combat Outpost Kahler and its observation post at dawn. Chosen Company, 2-503rd holds. Nine paratroopers are killed and twenty-seven wounded.

    2-503rd gear
  10. 3 Oct 2009
    Kamdesh

    Combat Outpost Keating

    Kamdesh, Nuristan

    Three hundred fighters overrun the wire at a base built at the bottom of a bowl. Fifty-three soldiers of 3-61 Cavalry fight them back out over twelve hours. Eight are killed. Clint Romesha and Ty Carter receive the Medal of Honor.

    4th ID gear
  11. 13 Feb 2010
    Marjah

    Operation Moshtarak

    Marjah, Helmand

    Marines and Afghan troops assault Marjah in the largest helicopter-borne attack since Vietnam. The surge in Helmand has begun.

    1/6 gear
  12. Oct 2010 to Apr 2011
    Darkhorse

    Sangin

    Sangin, Helmand

    3rd Battalion, 5th Marines takes over the worst district in the country. Darkhorse loses twenty-five Marines and more than two hundred wounded in seven months, the heaviest casualties of any Marine battalion in the war.

    3/5 gear
  13. 2 May 2011
    Geronimo

    Neptune Spear

    Abbottabad, Pakistan

    Two helicopters out of Jalalabad put a SEAL assault force into bin Laden's compound. Forty minutes later he is dead. The war goes on without him.

  14. 6 Aug 2011
    Extortion 17

    Extortion 17

    Tangi Valley, Wardak

    A CH-47 carrying a quick reaction force is shot down by an RPG. Thirty Americans are killed, seventeen of them Navy SEALs, along with their Afghan partners and a military working dog. The single worst loss of the war.

  15. 28 Dec 2014
    Freedom's Sentinel

    Enduring Freedom ends

    Kabul

    The combat mission closes and Operation Freedom's Sentinel begins on New Year's Day. Americans will keep dying in Afghanistan for six and a half more years.

  16. 26 Aug 2021
    The last flight

    Abbey Gate

    Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul

    A suicide bomber hits the crowd at the airport gate during the evacuation. Eleven Marines, a sailor and a soldier are killed. Four days later the last C-17 lifts off and twenty years are over.

The cost

Never forgotten

Every number on this page is a name on a wall somewhere. We print the units so the names keep getting said out loud.

  • 2,349U.S. deaths, OEFDoD casualty status
  • 20,149Wounded in action, OEFDoD casualty status
  • 13Killed at Abbey Gate, 26 Aug 2021Operation Freedom's Sentinel

Casualty figures: U.S. Department of Defense casualty status, as compiled by the Congressional Research Service (RL32492), as of 16 July 2020. Operation Enduring Freedom, 7 October 2001 to 28 December 2014.