Army 1st Lt. James L. Goddard has returned to the U.S. after being deployed overseas at a forward operating base to serve in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Goddard is a civil military officer assigned to the 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska. He has served in the military for nine years.

He is the son of Susan Clack of Travis Drive in Oakwood and Michael Goddard Sr. of Dumar Lane in Hoschton.

The first lieutenant is a 2000 graduate of North Gwinnett High School in Suwanee. He earned a bachelor’s degree in 2009 from the University of Georgia in Athens.

Operation Enduring Freedom is the official name given to anti-terrorism military operations involving U.S. troops and allied coalition partners. Active duty and reserve component members from all branches of the U.S. armed forces have been deployed to support the war against terrorism in South, Southwest and Central Asia, the Arabian peninsula, the Horn of Africa, islands in the Pacific and Europe.