Twenty-five years ago today, the first strikes of Enduring Freedom shook Afghanistan.
On October 7, 2001, American and British warplanes hit al-Qaeda training camps and Taliban military targets. Cruise missiles flew from warships in the region. The message was clear. Anyone who offered sanctuary to the men behind September 11 now shared their fight.
The airstrikes were only the opening act.
Behind the bombs, a quieter campaign was already underway. Small teams of special-operations forces and CIA paramilitary officers were on the ground before the main force arrived. They linked up with Afghan fighters, called in strikes, and mapped the valleys that would soon become the battlefield. It was the old playbook: talk to locals first, understand the terrain, then move.
Deniable work defined those first weeks.
Operators worked in the shadows. No unit patches. No public names. They did the unglamorous jobs that win wars — spotting, guiding, connecting. It remains the backbone of counterterrorism today.
The lesson endures for anyone who studies modern warfare.
Victory in these fights is rarely one big battle. It is patient, layered pressure. Air power sets the stage. Ground operators set the conditions. Intelligence ties the pieces together. When all three line up, elite units can do in weeks what armies once took years to attempt.
That same tension drives the Descending Eagle series.
Every book follows the kind of operators who opened Enduring Freedom — ex-SOF and agency veterans taking on cartels, failing states, and smugglers who think they are untouchable. The scenarios are fiction. The tactics are real.
Want to trace those first weeks of the war in a story built on real technique? The entire Eagle series is free right now.