F.O.B.

"I faced a number of unexpected things in the bay area in the last couple of weeks, but the most unexpected thing for me is that it feels like “home”. I didn’t particularly like the car jams and the very slow and expensive BART. But I liked many other things; many of them were already a part of my life in the “globalized” layer of the Middle East."
Read in the Middle

Hey Raed does SF! or is it SF did Raed.
It's kind of makes you think, the title, FOB, is that the usual forward operating base? Was he establishing one, or just visiting one, or is there some other usage I have not heard of.