AIRMAN 1ST Class Richard Watkins, 437th Aircraft Generation Squadron, Charleston Air Force Base, South Carolina, blocks in a C-17 Globemaster III at Naval Air Station Sigonella. Air Force members are deployed to NAS Sigonella in support of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM. In response to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 at the New York World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President George W. Bush initiated Operation ENDURING FREEDOM in support of the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), fighting terrorism abroad