[5] Currently the unit falls under the command of the 28th Combat Support Hospital[6] and is based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

In October 2001, the 274th FST (ABN) deployed to Bagram, Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom following the September 11th attacks, where it remained until May 2002.

The pinnacle of these was on 2 December 2012 when FOB Fenty came under a coordinated attack by Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Devices and suicide bombers, as well as small and heavy weapons fire as insurgents attempted to breach the perimeter of the base.

At the same time, it maintains the ability to split for smaller force level operations to provide front-line medical and surgical support.

Patients with injuries that prevent them from returning to the battlefield will then be evacuated to Level IV care in Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC) in Germany.

Their presence in the initial entry forces of both Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003 gave them a new look at the ability of the forward surgical team concept to function in the new "low-intensity" combat expected in each theater.

They wrote of their combined experiences during this time period including all the lessons learned from their initial setup in Uzbekistan and then the split operations they conducted in Bagram, Afghanistan.

Craig and Peoples also wrote about their modification of a patient warming device for its use in heating intravenous fluids to help address the hypothermia routinely seen in combat casualties.

By adapting the Bair Hugger patient warmer to a box they created for the purpose, they were able to raise the temperature of their irrigation and intravenous fluids to a physiologic level to help counteract the peripheral vasoconstriction and coagulopathy seen in hypothermic casualties.

[25] The 274th Forward Surgical Team was then, and continues to be, a source of refresher training to the United States Army Special Forces medics.

The surgeons wrote an article explaining their methods for teaching these topics to the Special Forces for the purpose of preparing future FSTs in theater for the task.

[26] In an illustration of how multi-national surgical teams can jointly manage mass casualty situations, Dr. D. Vassalo of the British 34 Field Hospital Troop and the members of the 274th Forward Surgical Team wrote of their collaborative efforts in the treatment of 16 injured service members involved in a Chinook helicopter crash on 28 January 2002.

[27] This was the largest mass casualty incident to be dealt with in a combined fashion by the British and American medical services in Afghanistan during the initial months of Operation Enduring Freedom.

They describe how it is not unusual for a military bariatric surgeon to go from performing a single incision laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy in a state-of-the-art laparoscopic suite one month to performing a neck exploration for a penetrating zone II gunshot wound in a poorly lit, nonventilated operating room in the mountains of Afghanistan the next month.