When the attacks on 9/11 occurred, then CDR Forkner, USN, was serving as the Combat Direction Center Officer and Assistant Operations Officer aboard USS CARL VINSON (CVN 70), transiting west off the coast of India on the way to the Persian Gulf to enforce Operation Southern Watch over Iraq. Instead, the CARL VINSON, COMCARGRU THREE, COMDESRON NINE, and CARRIER AIR WING ELEVEN established station in the North Arabian Sea, working with COMFIFTHFLEET and Pentagon planners on what would be America's response to the terror attacks. On the evening of October 7, he was on the bridge with the other senior officers watching the cruisers and destroyers launch the first Tomahawk missiles into Afghanistan and, a few hours later, he was in Combat as the first wave of strike-fighters was launched into the Afghan theater of battle.