What This Field Means
A place where the unit is operating, deployed, detached, or rotating, which may be different from its home station.
This records where the unit was physically operating, deployed, detached, rotating, or forward positioned. It helps veterans connect a unit identity to a theater, base, ship, site, or deployment they remember.
How to Read It Correctly
Operating location is not necessarily the unit’s home station, formal area of responsibility, parent command, or permanent posture. Co-location alone does not establish command or assignment.
Example
A forward operating site used during a particular deployment.
Technical Specification
The database column is [USMIL-Unit].[Unit].[OperatingLocation]. Optional evidence-derived operating-location narrative. It may be time-bounded and may contain more than one supported location.
Name the supported operating place and preserve the relevant period and context. When several locations apply, use separate effective-dated assertions rather than an ambiguous undated list whenever the data model permits.
| Property | Definition or current value |
|---|---|
| Database column | OperatingLocation |
| Column order | 39 |
| SQL data type | nvarchar(1024) |
| Kind of information | Evidence-derived text |
| Cardinality | One stored value per Unit row. |
| Required | No; NULL is permitted |
| Database default | No database default |
| Key or relationship | None |
| Database check constraint | ([CurrentStatus]=N'Planned' OR [CurrentStatus]=N'Status unknown' OR [CurrentStatus]=N'Historical' OR [CurrentStatus]=N'Inactive' OR [CurrentStatus]=N'Current') |
| Live population | 3122 of 9341 Unit records (33.42%) |
| Distinct nonblank values in the live table | 1700 |
| Live profile measured | September 2, 2026, 20:43 UTC |
Allowed Values and Definitions
No preset menu applies to this field. It stores an identifier, relationship, measurement, date, timestamp, or evidence-derived narrative. Valid content is governed by the SQL type, key relationship, nullability, retained evidence, and the field-specific recording rule above. A list of observed contents would be data, not a list of allowed options.
Missing, Unknown, and Conflicting Information
A database NULL is permitted and means that no value is presently stored. It does not prove that the fact never existed, that the answer is no, or that the concept does not apply. Missing information must remain visibly different from a supported negative or inapplicable conclusion.
Connections to Other Fields
- Home Station or Homeport — The installation, base, station, or port the unit normally calls home.
- Area of Responsibility — The geographic area or assigned function for which the unit or command is responsible.
- Posture — How the unit is positioned for service—at home, forward, rotating, deployed, mobilized, or expeditionary.
- Operational Context — The operation, campaign, exercise, contingency, or standing plan in which a command relationship or unit activity applies.
- Effective From — The date from which the facts represented by this unit record are known to apply.