By PHILLIP TUTOR | The Anniston Star, Ala. | Published: April 17, 2021 ANNISTON, Ala. (Tribune News Service) The day before U.S. and British forces began air strikes in Afghanistan, members of the Alabama State Defense Force gathered at a military base to begin training not for war, but to replace those who were. They trained at Fort McClellan. Thus began one of Calhoun County s earliest links to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and America s involvement in its Forever War, which President Biden says he ll end by removing the final 2,500 U.S. troops from Afghanistan this year. That link also highlighted the beguiling paradox that still surrounds Anniston s Army post, whose origin traces to the National Guardsmen who used the Bains Gap hills for artillery practice before World War I.