their higher headquarters. During this deployment, the battalion received the Valorous Unit Award—the Army's second highest unit decoration—for actions during the Battle of Barge-Matal. In March 2011, the 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry again deployed as part of 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, this time to Kandahar Province, southern Afghanistan, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom XI-XII under the command of Lieutenant Colonel (later Colonel) Kenneth J. Mintz. The battalion was a battle space owner in the western portion of the Zhari District, replacing the 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. The battalion's area of operations included the villages of Nalgham and Sangsar, the spiritual heartland of the Taliban and the hometown of the Taliban's founder, Mullah Omar. Throughout the deployment, the battalion was headquartered at Forward Operations Base (FOB) Howz-e-Madad located on the north side of Highway 1, with Alpha Company at Combat Outpost (COP) Ahmed Khan, Bravo Company at COP Sangsar, Charlie Company at COP Nalgham, and Delta Company at COP Zarif Khel. Soldiers from the battalion conducted a series of successful "Steel Lion" operations, fighting south to the Arghandab River to isolate the Taliban insurgents from the population, secure the area through the construction of numerous strongpoints manned by US and Afghan security forces, and bring relative stability to the area. Additionally, Soldiers from the battalion worked shoulder to shoulder with the Afghan National Army, Afghan National Police, Afghan National Civil Order Police, and stood up several new elements of Afghan Local Police, before redeploying to Fort Drum in March 2012. During this deployment the battalion suffered fourteen Soldiers killed-in-action (KIA), half of the brigade's total KIA casualties. The battalion again deployed to Afghanistan as part of 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in the fall of 2013. After the deactivation of 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division and its reflagging at Fort Polk, Louisiana in 2014, the 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment was again reassigned back to 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division. In 2020, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Scott Horrigan, the battalion deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Freedom's Sentinel. Lineage 1st BATTALION, 32d INFANTRY REGIMENT Constituted 1 July 1916 in the Regular Army as Company A, 32d Infantry Organized 7 August 1916 at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii (32d Infantry assigned 31 July 1918 to the 16th Division; relieved 8 March 1919 from assignment to