Photo credit: Courtesy of the author
“It’s an extraordinary read, it’s inspirational,” said Juleanna Glover referring to Gayle Lemmon’s Ashley’s War. “I promise you the story is worth it,” replied Lemmon whose book The Dressmaker of Khair Khana was widely acclaimed
The plot of Ashley’s War is best described by the publisher (Harper, First Edition): “In 2010, the Army created Cultural Support Teams, a secret pilot program to insert women alongside Special Operations soldiers battling in Afghanistan. The Army reasoned that women could play a unique role on Special Ops teams: accompanying their male colleagues on raids and, while those soldiers were searching for insurgents, questioning the mothers, sisters, daughters and wives living at the compound. Their presence had a calming effect on enemy households, but more importantly, the CSTs were able to search adult women for weapons and gather crucial intelligence. They could build relationships—woman to woman—in ways that male soldiers in an Islamic country never could.”
“The story begins with some of the most tested leaders in the United States special operations command saying we will never win this war without women,” said Lemmon. “Ten years into America’s longest war, America was very good at nighttime combat operations, was very good at targeting the insurgency, and not so good at the knowledge side. Admiral McCraven, who was then running joint special operations command in Afghanistan, puts in a formal request for (female) forces. He says ‘We need women soldiers to be out on ranger raids.’ Knowledge and information and understanding was being left behind on the battlefield. Ten years into America’s longest fight, it needed every edge, every ounce of information possible. The issue was where do you find women? The truth was that no matter how good the United States forces got in combat, male soldiers in a conservative and traditional society like Afghanistan, particularly where the insurgency was hardest, could not talk to women without causing grave effects. It really doesn’t matter whether you’re in southern Maryland or southern Afghanistan, if you want to know what’s going on in a community, who do you talk to? It’s usually women. The idea was let’s get women out there on these kinds of combat operations which are experienced by less than 5% of the entire United States military.”
“There were two problems: One is that officially, the ban on women in ground combat remained. Women couldn’t be in ground combat units, but they could not be assigned to them. They could be attached to them,” Lemmon explained. “That difference between being attached to and being assigned to was what allowed the creation of the very benign name called “Cultural Support Teams” for an incredibly groundbreaking concept, which is that women who were going to all of a sudden be out on night raids alongside rangers, alongside seals, alongside other special operation teams at a time when they remained officially banned from ground combat. The question now, and this for me as a storyteller, was how do you find the women who are going to go do this mission, especially because special operations, most of it, remained off-limits to female soldiers in the army and certainly to women in the navy and marines as well. The answer came basically in the form of a recruiting poster that’s in the book, that said ‘Female soldiers: become part of history. Join special operations on the battlefield in Afghanistan.’ From South Carolina to South Korea, bases all across the world, Alabama to Alaska, exactly who you would think would answer that recruiting poster’s call, put their hands up. Young women who were incredibly athletic, incredibly fit, incredibly driven and motivated, and who simply wanted to serve their country alongside the best of the best, at the heart of America’s fight.”
Photo credit: Ted.com
“You had people who I really could never have made up if I tried,” added Lemmon who now had the full attention of the guests. “At the heart of this team was 1st Lt. Ashley White, then second lieutenant. She was this rare combination of Martha Steward and GI Jane. She was somebody who loved to cook dinner for her husband who was her ROTC sweetheart from Kent State who always pushed her to do everything she could and to live up to her talent. She also would put 40 pounds in her rucksack and march through the Ravenna Arsenal near her home in Ohio. She was somebody who would never tell you how good she was but who would simply do her job and walk away and sort of pretend like nothing had happened.”
“The thing I want to leave you with is that as much as the story is a war story and a love story, it’s actually the ultimate story of female friendship in the least likely of places. As one of them said, ‘It’s like realizing there’s more than one giraffe at the zoo.’ These were young women who would always had to apologize for who they were, for being as intense and as driven, as motivated to do be as close to the front-line as they wanted to be. All of a sudden, there was this whole crew of real ass kickers who just all understood why they were there. It was never about proving a point, and it was always about serving with purpose. It was never about politics. It was about patriotism for these young women. They come together and they go to Afghanistan. They end up making a difference. These young women go out and they prove themselves. They go aboard a helicopter in the dark of night ….. some of you guys have seen Zero Dark Thirty. They board the helicopter. They land. They go through whatever terrain for however many kilometers needed to target the compound. The rangers do their work. These young women do their work talking to the women of the house.”
Juleanna Glover and Gayle Lemmon at Glover’s Kalorama home
“Final stages,” concluded Lemmon. “I have this Green Beret who worked at the Pentagon and read the book early on. He called me. He said, “Hey, Gayle. I like this a lot more than I expected.” Which I think was a compliment. I took it as one. He said, ‘But you have a typo because it says S-P-A-N-X on page 115.’ Some of you might get it if you’re female. That’s not a typo. That’s Spanx. A lot of women might be wearing them. They are female undergarments and help your clothing fit better. This may actually be the first war story with Spanx in it. The truth was they were building a plane in mid flight and those women were wearing uniforms made for men. They were big where they should be small and small where they should be big. Ashley White’s uniform came up to here. She borrows suspenders from a stranger. Lane Mason, the Iraq veteran, actually went out on Amazon because her pants were so tight she could barely function in them and ordered a pair of Spanx. She wore it for an operating base and wore them out every single night on mission.”
“These young women lived in the edge. They showed that you could wear mascara and body armor and one did not make you less serious than the other. That you could love cross-fit and do cross stitch. That you can paint your nails and be tough as nails. There was nothing about one that made you less serious when it came time for the other. They brought their whole, whole self to war. I think so many times we’re used to either on the page or on the screen seeing women in only one dimension. They can either be tough or they can be kind. They can either be hard charging or they can be caring. These young women were both every single night.”
Photo credit: Janet Donovan
In January 2013, the combat ban was lifted by Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. “As we go forward, I hope you will enjoy the story of heart and grit and heroism and courage and Americans who simply answered when their country called.”
