Ashley's War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield

by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

Overview

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.

In Ashley's War, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon uses on-the-ground reporting and a finely tuned understanding of the complexities of war to tell the story of CST-2, a unit of women hand-picked from the Army to serve in this highly specialized and challenging role. The pioneers of CST-2 proved for the first time, at least to some grizzled Special Operations soldiers, that women might be physically and mentally tough enough to become one of them.

The price of this professional acceptance came in personal loss and social isolation: the only people who really understand the women of CST-2 are each other. At the center of this story is a friendship cemented by "Glee," video games, and the shared perils and seductive powers of up-close combat. At the heart of the team is the tale of a beloved and effective soldier, Ashley White.

Much as she did in her bestselling The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, Lemmon transports readers to a world they previously had no idea existed: a community of women called to fulfill the military's mission to "win hearts and minds" and bound together by danger, valor, and determination. Ashley's War is a gripping combat narrative and a moving story of friendship—a book that will change the way readers think about war and the meaning of service.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062333834
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	04/21/2015
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	NOOK Book
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	116,044
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon is a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a contributor to Atlantic Media’s Defense One, writing on national security and foreign policy issues. She is the bestselling author of The Dressmaker of Khair Khana and has written for Newsweek, the Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, CNN.com, and the Daily Beast, as well as for the World Bank and Harvard Business School.

Table of Contents

Preface: Kandahar xiii

I The Call to Serve

1 Uncle Sam Needs You 3

2 Hearing the Call to Serve 19

3 The Landmark Inn 31

4 100 Hours of Hell 53

5 Making the Cut 79

6 Training Days 95

7 Diamonds Among Diamonds 115

II Deployment

8 Arrival, Afghanistan 143

9 Operation "Fit In" 163

10 The "Terp" 169

11 Climbing Mountains in the Night 189

12 Making a Difference 201

13 The Lies of War 217

III Last Roll Call

14 The First Death 225

15 A Grief Observed 247

16 The Man in the Arena 255

17 Kandahar 263

Epilogue 277

Acknowledgments 283

Select Bibliography 287

Editorial Reviews

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon expertly gives readers an inside look at what it takes to work alongside America’s elite forces. The book is a gripping, moving, and well-told war story, but more importantly it offers the first glimpse into a historic program.

Kevin Maurer

Fascinating and often moving, Ashley’s War follows one of the early groups of women who volunteered to serve alongside special operations soldiers, vividly portraying their training, their early missions as they learn their jobs, their bonds of friendship, and their reckoning with the toll of war. Remarkable.

Phil Klay

Ashley’s War shares the remarkable stories of one of the first teams of women serving in the U.S. Army Special Operations Command. This team forged the path for American women who serve in harm’s way all over the world and continue to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Senator John McCain

A tremendous story. . . . Very moving.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Lemmon has done her homework. . . . She is a strong and capable guide. . . . With a fine eye for detail, she shows us what set this program apart.

Foreign Policy

Ashley’s War quietly grips the reader with the untold story of a small group of women selected to serve in combat alongside the US’s best soldiers. . . . Rich storytelling. . . . Compelling. . . . In battle as in life, these women refuse to quit.

Christian Science Monitor

An unforgettable story of female soldiers breaking the brass ceiling. The women who answered America’s call to serve show that our military is stronger when it engages both halves of the population. This book will inspire you and remind you of the power that comes with defying limits.

Sheryl Sandberg

07/01/2015
Journalist Lemmon (The Dressmaker of Khair Khana) delivers an inspiring account of the women chosen by the U.S. Army to serve as combat agents during the conflict in Afghanistan. By 2010, the army recognized that it could no longer ignore the need for female operatives to help gather intelligence in this war zone. (Cultural differences virtually forbid male personnel from approaching Afghan women.) As a result, a program for female soldiers to work alongside army rangers and other special operation units as cultural support teams (CST) was developed. Though women were officially banned from ground combat, the CST program allowed for these highly trained females to assist in treacherous battlefield Intel missions. At the center of this story is First Lt. Ashley White, an unassuming young American whose dedication, strength, and courage forged a path for her peers who also desired the recognition and respect that military service can bring. The increasing scope of the work of women in the armed forces has been explored by such insightful works as Helen Thorpe's Soldier Girls. VERDICT This compassionate and intimate exposé addressing the female battlefield experience will resonate with readers interested in the woman warriors of today's military.—Mary Jennings, Camano Island Lib., WA

Library Journal

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