Women in Combat: The Untold Story of the First-All Female Special Ops Team

Strategic Insights -

Ashley's War, a book by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, tells the story of the first-ever all-female, all-Army team to serve on the battlefield alongside Special Operations Forces in Afghanistan. The team, known as Cultural Support Teams (CST), was formed in 2010 to access and communicate with Afghan women who remained out of reach to male soldiers. The story centers around 1st Lt. Ashley White, a remarkable hero who was killed in action and honored on the Army Special Operations Memorial Wall of Honor.

Key Takeaways:

  • In 2010, the U.S. Army Special Operations Command launched a pilot program to put women on the battlefield alongside Special Forces, Army Rangers, and Navy SEALs on sensitive nighttime missions in Afghanistan.
  • The pilot program, called Cultural Support Teams (CST), aimed to allow women to do things men could not, such as accessing and communicating with Afghan women in a conservative, traditional country.
  • Of the over 100 women chosen to come to Fort Bragg for the demanding, weeklong CST selection process, roughly half would pass the test and make the team.
  • 1st Lt. Ashley White, the hero at the heart of CST-2, was the first female to be remembered on the National Infantry Museum's Memorial Walk and the Army Special Operations Memorial Wall of Honor.
  • The combat ban on women in ground-combat units was lifted in 2013, but female soldiers had been serving on special-operations missions to search and question women for years before the ban was lifted.
  • Special Operations commanders had opened up positions to women they felt were the best for the job, even though the jobs remained closed to female soldiers well before the combat ban was lifted in 2013.
  • The book, Ashley's War, reveals the behind-the-scenes story of how and why the first program to officially bring women on night raids alongside Army Special Operations Forces and SEALs was created.

Statistics:

  • Less than 5% of the U.S. military had seen the combat environment where the women of CST-2 served.
  • Roughly half of the over 100 women chosen to come to Fort Bragg for the CST selection process passed the test and made the team.
  • 1st Lt. Ashley White was the first female to be remembered on the Army Special Operations Memorial Wall of Honor and the National Infantry Museum's Memorial Walk.

Sources:

  • Ashley's War by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, a book about the first-all female, all-Army team to serve on the battlefield alongside Special Operations Forces in Afghanistan.
  • Pacific Standard, Reese Witherspoon's production company, and Fox 2000, which won a book-rights auction to take Ashley's War to the big screen.