Col. David S. Oeschger entered the Army as an Armor Officer in 1991, after being commissioned through the Georgetown University Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program. His first assignment following the Armor Officer Basic Course and Ranger School was with 2-34 Armor Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, where he served as a Tank Platoon Leader, Scout Platoon Leader, Headquarters and Headquarters Company (HHC) Executive Officer, and Battalion Operations Officer.
After attending the Infantry Officer Advanced Course, he served as an Action Officer on the Commanding General, U.S. Army Europe staff in Heidelberg, Germany and Bosnia. He then moved to Vilseck, Germany and joined the 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division as the Maintenance Officer and then Personnel Officer. He then commanded C Company, 2-63 Armor Regiment followed by HHC 1-63 Armor Regiment which included a tour in Macedonia. These commands were followed by an assignment to Fort Stewart, Georgia in 2001 as the Brigade Plans Officer and later Operations Officer, 4th Brigade, 87th Training Support Division.
Oeschger attended Command and General Staff College in 2004, and returned to Fort Stewart, Georgia as the Secretary to the General Staff, 3rd Infantry Division. While in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), he became the Operations Officer for the 3-7 Cavalry Squadron. Following that deployment he served as Executive Officer, 3-7 Cavalry Squadron followed by Operations Officer and Executive Officer, 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division (Spartans). He deployed in support of OIF in 2007, as a member of the last of the surge brigades. When he returned, Oeschger became the Deputy Operations Officer, 3rd Infantry Division, until the summer of 2009, when he assumed command of the 4-70 Armor Battalion, Baumholder, Germany. He deployed to Afghanistan as Commander of Task Force Thunderbolt under the joint U.S. and Australian command in Uruzghan.
After being medically evacuated from Afghanistan due to severe wounds sustained in combat in July 2011, Oeschger spent the next seven months recovering at Warrior Transition Battalion-Europe. He spent the last two years as the Operations Officer of the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California.
