The men and women of the Army Reserve were on the front lines of the first war of the 21st century from its outset, with a number of Reserve Soldiers among the killed at the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. Army Reserve units and individual Soldiers responded to the attack immediately and carried out a host of missions to support rescue and recovery operations and to secure federal facilities nation-wide.
Less than a month after the attack on America, America struck back at the base of the attackers in Afghanistan. Within a few months, Afghanistan’s repressive Taliban regime, which had supported and given sanctuary to the al Qaeda terrorists who had launched the 9-11 attacks against America, had been driven from power and, along with the foreign terrorists, were in hiding in the rugged south and east of Afghanistan. Army Reserve Soldiers contributed significantly to this victory.
Army Reserve public affairs soldiers went into the mountains of eastern Afghanistan with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) on Operation Anaconda. Army Reserve engineers improved facilities at Kandahar while medical citizen-soldiers treated casualties at Bagram air base. Army Reserve civil affairs soldiers operated throughout Afghanistan to help the Afghan people recover from decades of war.
On March 20, 2003, Operation Iraqi Freedom began, with Army Reserve soldiers in action right from the beginning and fighting their way to Baghdad alongside their comrades-in-arms from the other U.S. Armed Forces and coalition allies. When Baghdad fell on April 9, 2003, the Army Reserve was there. Although major combat operations in Iraq were declared to be over on May 1, 2003, combat did not cease. A difficult guerilla campaign continued, one waged by loyalists of Saddam Hussein’s regime, Iraqi insurgents and foreign fighters. More American casualties were suffered following the end of major combat operations than were lost in the period before May 1.
At the height of Operation Iraqi Freedom, some 70,000 Army Reserve soldiers had been mobilized and were serving not only in Iraq and Kuwait but also in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, in Europe, in the Horn of Africa, and throughout the United States.
Today, operations continued in both Iraq and Afghanistan and the Army Reserve remained heavily committed in each area. In Afghanistan, Army Reserve soldiers have been decisively engaged in helping the emerging Afghan democracy develop and take its place alongside the family of nations.
Army Reserve Soldiers served as part of the coalition forces building a 70,000-man strong Afghan National Army and were helping the Afghans set up a modern defense establishment under the control of a democratically-elected civilian government. The successful Afghan presidential election in October 2004 testified to the progress being made in moving Afghanistan towards this goal.
