After Sept. 11, 2001, when the United States officially launched the War on Terror, nearly 7,000 U.S. troops gave their lives supporting the two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and an estimated one million or more were wounded. Of the casualties, 139 grew up in Alabama or lived part of their lives there. Four of the servicemen and servicewomen killed in the Pentagon on Sept. 11 had ties to Alabama as well.

The deaths of these troops impacted thousands of people – parents, children, spouses, other family members, friends, classmates, military buddies.

“Alabama’s Fallen Warriors: The price one state paid for the war on terror” continues a project started in 2006 by The Tuscaloosa News profiling those who died. This book is intended to give at least a brief view of these men and women, plus the 45 who have died since the newspaper series ended, as their families and communities knew them. Their stories need to be told and preserved. Those who died in service to their country should never be forgotten.