Major Matt Dale served as a strategic planner in the CJ5 plans section at Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom from February 2006 until September 2006. After being promoted to major, Dale volunteered for a deployment. Dale completed predeployment training at Fort Benning and Fort Knox and talks about the training he received. After he completed the predeployment training, Dale learned his orders had changed and he would be deploying to Kabul, Afghanistan. Prior to the movement, Dale was able to correspond with the person he would be replacing. He made the movement into Bagram and then took a convoy to Kabul, which gave him the opportunity to experience an intra-theater lift. Upon arriving at Camp Eggers, he was unable to receive a handoff because the person he would be replacing had redeployed. During his deployment, Dale was the lead US planner for Stage IV transition through Regional Command-East and assisted those preparing briefings. Dale discusses the timeline for the handoff to NATO forces and the lessons learned from Stage I and Stage II to improve the Stage IV transition. Dale had the opportunity to work with other US military services and discusses the differences in operations. He worked with contractors and described the experience as positive. Dale discusses how the coalition forces had different national caveats and how they overcame those challenges. At times, he was able to visit different FOBs but would have liked to have gotten out more. Dale talks about how the family readiness group was able to assist in family separation and how he was able to handle the stress of this deployment. Dale also offers his lessons learned and recommendations based on this deployment.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited