Major James Steven served on a military transition team in support of Operation Enduring Freedom from January 2006 to January 2007. Steven reported to Fort Riley and joined the other team members. He discusses the predeployment training received at Fort Riley, the training he felt was useful and the training he would have liked to have received. After the movement over, the team received briefs before arriving in Kandahar. The team fell in on equipment from the previous unit and received a handoff. The handoff did not go as smooth as Steven would have liked, but he was given the opportunity to become a transportation company mentor and reported to the 5th Kandak, 2nd Brigade, 205th Corps at FOB Apache in Qalat. There were no equipment shortages within the company and all Humvees had radios and counter-improvised explosive devise equipment. Steven talks about his living conditions and other accommodations. Security for the FOB was rotated among all the units. Steven discusses the training support they received and the training the Afghans received to improve their unit and the areas still needing improvement. He also talks about the challenges and other cultural ways of living they had to adjust to, to conduct business. Steven discusses the biggest challenges he had to work through during this deployment and the most rewarding part of being on a transition team. He offers his lessons learned and recommendations to improve future deployments.

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