In 2013, the US military officially lifted its ban on women soldiers serving in combat roles. But three years before that ban was lifted, some of America’s most battle-tested special operations leaders created an all-female unit to help in the battlefield of Afghanistan. The story of that team is the subject of a new book called ‘Ashley’s War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield’. Its author, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, discusses the book’s eponymous hero, First Lt. Ashley White, and that first ‘Cultural Support Team’.
Members of the US Army’s all-female ‘cultural support team’ in 2011 conduct marksmanship training. Credit: US Army/ SSG. Russell Lee Klika
Source: BBC
