The anchor facts, the Officer Evaluation Report, the unit of record, and a chronological account from the September 2011 arrival at Kandahar through the July 2012 redeployment — the two combat-exposure events, the closed-head injury, and the reassignment to FOB Farah.
The deployment is documented in the Afghanistan-period Officer Evaluation Report. The cumulative rated period on the form covers 2 August 2009 – 21 June 2012; the active in-theater window of September 2011 – July 2012 falls inside it, and the Part V operational content is anchored to that in-theater period. Both OERs (Afghanistan-period and post-deployment) are named on the Sources page as primary Army records; full content is releasable on request through the channels described on the Verification page.
The 230th Signal Company deploys for OEF. Specialized pre-deployment training is discovered to be task-organized for Iraq; the officer withdraws nine soldiers, misses the scheduled Bagram flight, identifies alternative routing through Qatar, and reaches Bagram five to six days ahead of the deployment cohort.
Ordered to Kandahar Airfield as DSST OIC. Conducts Relief in Place / Transfer of Authority with a Maine National Guard unit assessed as the fourth consecutive rotation to fail the mission.
Briefs that standard requisition would take six to seven months. Initiates lateral resourcing: five HMMWVs, two LMTVs, and Mayor's Cell registration in roughly 72 hours; Seabee materiel exchange; distribution by LMTV and C-130 across the forward FOBs. See Kandahar.
A vehicle-borne IED detonates at the British-run dining facility, Gate 2. Blast effects through the structure. First documented combat-exposure event of the deployment.
A nighttime rocket attack on the billeting area throws the officer from his bunk; closed-head injury with loss of consciousness. The exact date is held by the battalion commander. See Medical Record.
Orders assign the officer to FOB Farah to assume DSST command. The workspace is a 20-by-40-foot wooden shanty in the FOB traffic corridor, without force protection; nine soldiers in tents; a non-operational TCF; 35 idle contractors.
Coordination with 4th Infantry Division (TF Warhorse) signal leadership transfers building access, infrastructure control, and routing authority to the DSST commander. Soldiers move from tents to hardened structures. The first hardened TCF SOP in Regional Command West is written. See FOB Farah.
After two weeks of planning, the first integrated NATO–U.S. signal link in RC-West is executed in a single overnight operation before Christmas: roughly 300 yards of trenching to the splice point and 100 yards to the Italian command post. See Coalition Integration.
A presentation flag is flown over FOB Farah on the officer's behalf — 2nd Special Troops Battalion / Task Force Lonestar / 2nd BCT / 4th Infantry Division, certificate signed by LTC Patrick J. Stevenson and CSM Yolanda M. Tate. A hard-dated corroborator of in-theater presence. See Presented Artifacts.
The PRT arrives and is oriented to pre-wired facilities per the established SOPs. Documentation maintained for follow-on commanders.
The officer oversees the transition of all DSST operations and communications infrastructure to successor personnel; assigned soldiers redeploy to home stations.
Department of Veterans Affairs rating of 100% service-connected traumatic brain injury, effective 21 August 2012.