These Combat Engineers were part of Task Force Panther, centered around the 3rd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment from Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

This consisted of a living area, helicopter landing pad, forward arming and refueling point (FARP) and a 3,000-foot dirt runway, which was used for the first time in November 2002 by a C-130.

Soldiers with 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th BCT, 101st Airborne Division, popularly known as Fox Company, were the last U.S. personnel to occupy FOB Salerno.

Helicopter gunships, A10 warthogs and Reaper Drones later pounded the Taliban staging area and surrounding rocket sites, resulting in 3 known deaths.

As anti-personnel RPGs are rare in Afghanistan it is unclear how the weapons were obtained, though there is a connection with Northwestern Chinese units selling their munitions to the Taliban for profit and could be the origin of the AP RPG-69's.

In one incident, a rocket detonated over the Base Defense Operations Center and a number of personnel was struck by shrapnel, but there were no significant injuries.

On 30 December 2009 FOB Chapman, another nearby installation was attacked by a suicide bomber who was involved with the CIA as an undercover agent infiltrating Al Qaeda.

Two base contractors were killed in the attack when the DFAC annex collapsed, and a US Soldier died of a fragmentation wound to his face from a hand grenade a few days later.

Although initially downplayed in the media, in July 2012 both Long War Journal and al Jazeera published an unedited attack video released by the Taliban.

[7] Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed that an airplane on an airstrip at the base was destroyed and that 'tens' of foreign forces were killed and wounded in the attack.

[citation needed] FOB Salerno was located approximately 25 km from the Pakistan border and the most viable path connecting it to Afghanistan was the Khost-Gardez Pass, which is highly vulnerable to attack and often lead to supply shortages at the base.

[8] During the operation the Battle for Hill 3234 took place in which the 9th Company of the 345th Independent Guards Airborne Regiment was almost wiped out but managed to hold back the mujaheddin attack.

On 1 November 2013 the Afghan Government fully took control of the base while before they operated in their own separate section as the last remaining US forces withdrew from FOB Salerno led by Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment.

During the closure the Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction noted that the inadequate planning of the command staff on the base resulted in $5 million being spent on an incinerator.

The incinerator was to replace the open burn pit on base which was thought to cause potential health problems, however once built it was never used and allowed to rust away.