They did not indicate he could have "short circuited" any attempt to foreclose by sending documents before deployment. If the military is as I remember it they make you sit in a room and tell you to fill out the paperwork.
I do wonder how she is so certain no one fronm the HOA tried to contact her personally when she refused to answer the door.
Yes, this is correct. We have deployment workshops where service members are instructed to bring with them a list of all of their creditors, to include HOA, which is not at all uncommon when dealing with our reserve components facing activation. Then, with the help of JAGs, letters are prepared that include the relevant federal laws and the member's deployment orders. This would have been the warning shot across the bow of the HOA association, and DOJ has an office in their civil division that does nothing but sue creditors who violate the SSCRA. The penalties associated with such violations can be staggering, although it virtually never goes that far because the DOJ and the Service Branch puts the fear of the fedgov into these (sometimes) unscrupulous lenders.
Now, it's possible that he had someone who was incompetent leading that workshop. That's probably not likely, as I'm sure he was in what was dozens of workshops prepared by command legal staff.