US Armed Forces Camp Stronghold Freedom / Uzbeckistan Karshi-Khanabad Air Base K2 Operation ENDURING FREEDOM

This coin is 1 1/2 inches in diamater. Karshi-Khanabad, better known as K2, is an air base in southeastern Uzbekistan, just east of Karshi. It is home to the 60th Separate Mixed Aviation Brigade of the Uzbek Air Force. Between 2001 and 2005 seven thousand United States Department of Defense personnel were assigned to the base,[5] also known as K2 and "Camp Stronghold Freedom", for support missions against al-Qaeda in neighbouring Afghanistan. The 416th Air Expeditionary Group was the host unit. On July 29, 2005, amid strained relations caused by the May 2005 unrest in Uzbekistan, the United States was told to vacate the base within six months. It was vacated by the United States in November 2005.[6][7][8] Pollution In November 2001, the US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine-Europe performed an environmental baseline survey and found widespread jet fuel plumes, usually 1–3 meters under ground, most likely from a leaking Soviet-era underground fuel distribution syst