Operation Enduring Freedom

Texas Service and Sacrifice – Our patriotic state has provided an enormous number of service members, according to Texas Veterans Commission, well over 225,000 service members have served in Afghanistan or Iraq. Many of these service members were severely injured. There are over 6800* fallen US service members from deployments during the Global War on Terror and Overseas Contingency Operations. Approximately 10% of these lives lost are Texans. Many Texas men and women have deployed multiple times, accumulating years away from their loved ones. It is for this very reason that our service members today have more combat time than at any other time in our nation’s history.

Honor the service and sacrifice by our great Texas Veterans and their Families by taking action and contributing funds to build the monument at the Texas Capitol. The time is now to remember and honor those who paid the ultimate sacrifice as well as those who served and the families who served and sacrificed along with their service members.

Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)

In response to the September 2001 terrorist attacks on New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President George W. Bush launched the Global War on Terror (GWOT). As it evolved, his objective was two-fold: to destroy al Qaeda, the Taliban, and other terrorist groups in Afghanistan and around the world, and to remove Saddam Hussein from power to forestall threats from his presumed possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

Operation ENDURING FREEDOM began on October 7, 2001, when the United States launched military operations in Afghanistan, including airstrikes against Kabul and Kandahar. In sustaining military operations for over a decade, American troops continue to fight a widespread insurgency and establish a viable government. On May 1, 2011, US Navy SEALS killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan ended on December 31, 2014.