Robert Harward, a Navy SEAL, was the commander of Task Force K-Bar, a coalition force of approximately 2,800 troops – roughly 1,300 ultimately stationed in Afghanistan and another 1,500 in an assortment of bases throughout the theater of operations. CJSOTF-S, named Task Force K-Bar, was tasked with fighting “the war on terrorism” and working unilaterally to destroy al Qaeda’s ability to conduct operations in the country. They were tasked with coordinating missions with the Afghan resistance, fighting “the war for Afghanistan” to defeat the Taliban government. The ground troops for CJSOTF-N, named Task Force Dagger, were primarily Special Forces operators – Green Berets – and became famous as the “ Horse Soldiers” for their use of Afghan ponies in the campaign. He divided the country into two commands: Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-North (CJSOTF-N) and Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-South (CJSOTF-S). Calland III was tasked with leading the initial phases of the war in Afghanistan. In September 2001, Navy SEAL then-Rear Adm. One important reason for the dramatic turnaround in such a breathtakingly short period of time was the SEAL-led coalition special operations unit designated Task Force K-Bar. By April 2002, the Taliban government would be eliminated and the al Qaeda network in Afghanistan destroyed. The Taliban controlled approximately 80 percent of the country and the outnumbered and outgunned anti-Taliban Northern Alliance had its back literally against the wall, hemmed into a small region in northwest Afghanistan. 7, 2001, the task was daunting, with some feeling that SOCOM had bitten off more than it could chew. In a radical departure from past military campaigns, OEF-A would be primarily a Special Operations Command ( SOCOM) campaign. Even before the debris had settled over the ruins and wreckage, plans were prepared and ordered and were issued for Operation Enduring Freedom-Afghanistan (OEF-A), the military response against al Qaeda, the terrorist organization responsible for the attacks, and the Taliban, the rogue government harboring them. Two crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City, destroying them, a third smashed into the western side of the Pentagon, and a fourth, intended for the Capitol, instead crashed into a field in Pennsylvania thanks to the heroic efforts of the airliner’s passengers. 11, 2001, the United States suffered the greatest terrorist attack on its soil when four teams of terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners. “They established benchmark standards of professionalism, tenacity, courage, tactical brilliance, and operational excellence.” – Secretary of the Navy Gordon England, Presidential Unit Citation ceremony for Task Force K-Bar, Dec.
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