May God protect those who are in harm’s way.
It’s Memorial Day – we honor the fallen, we remember them and thank them for their great sacrifice.
This post is written in loving memory of my friend, Ryan David, who was killed, along with the rest of the Charlotte Guard based crew, in a C-130 crash in 2012.
Ryan – I will always remember you and your warm smile. You always made everyone laugh. I’m sure you’re smiling that big smile down on all of us today.
It is also in loving memory of my grandfather, Larry “Country” Kennedy, who I never met. He was killed while doing what he loved most, flying his F-100. It’s not always during war when our service members are in harms way. He died in a routine training event. He’s pictured below, top left.
Grandpa Kennedy, my Dad, my bro-in-law, me, and my husband.
There’s one other person I want to memorialize this Memorial Day as well. I didn’t know her personally, but I came to know her through to know her through the incredibly well written book by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, Ashley’s War.
I was unaware of the Cultural Support Teams that the Army created within the Special Operations branch for women to help gain information in Afghanistan. These women, real women, played such a key role in operations, and were true badasses. I knew from the time I started the book that Ashley would not make it out of Afghanistan alive, but I kept hoping somehow the outcome would change by the time I finished the book.
If you want to be inspired, better educated about the role women play in combat in Afghanistan AND remember a really amazing young woman who gave all for our country, please check out this book.
The Amazon description:
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.
To all who gave all… you will never be forgotten.
Who are you remembering this Memorial Day?
katbiggie
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