... These are not your mother's Marines here in the rugged California chaparral of Camp Pendleton, where 40 young women are preparing to deploy to Afghanistan in one of the more forward-leaning experiments of the American military.
Next month they will begin work as members of the first full-time "female engagement teams," the military's name for four- and five-member units that will accompany men on patrols in Helmand Province to try to win over the rural Afghan women who are culturally off limits to outside men. The teams, which are to meet with the Afghan women in their homes, assess their need for aid and gather intelligence, are part of Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's campaign for Afghan hearts and minds. His officers say that you cannot gain the trust of the Afghan population if you only talk to half of it.
"We know we can make a difference," said Capt. Emily Naslund, 26, the team's executive officer and second in command. Like the other 39 women, Captain Naslund volunteered for the program and radiates exuberance, but she is not naí¯ve about the frustrations and dangers ahead. Half of the women have been deployed before, most to Iraq...
More at The New York Times.
Also see Half-Hearted: Trying to Win Afghanistan without Afghan Women - Captain Matt Pottinger, Hali Jilani, and Claire Russo, Small Wars Journal.
Comments
I just posted the NYT FETs story and your journal link. Mine is a highly-trafficked international website with a special focus on women and international women.
Mixing style, sexy food and war stories is strange, but it works.
http://www.anneofcarversville.com/love-peace/women-to-women-marine-fets…
If there's any way that I can function as an alternative information source for stories like the FET one, and for stories about the lives of our military women around the world, please contact me.
Any features about the Marine's actual experiences at village level would be excellent. I have a strong following in the Middle East and much of my writing is translated into Arabic. Like the FETs, I am trusted and have a following with men as well as women. Anne
<em>"Marines who have worked with the ad hoc teams in Afghanistan said that rural Afghan women, rarely seen by outsiders, had more influence in their villages than male commanders might think, and that the Afghan womens good will could make Afghans, both men and women, less suspicious of American troops."</em>
I never knew for sure, but I always suspected this. Some things are universal. A man - in any country - will always claim that "in my house, what I say goes." In reality, once he goes home, his wife is telling him to take out the trash and fix that leaky faucet. If the man - in any country - knows what is good for him, he shuts up and does as he is told.
The U.S. Army handles things very differently than the USMC. While in Anbar I had a hard time using my female Soldiers to do the job female Soldiers were doing all over the country. I think this is a lot bigger than any one will talk about. Female Soldiers especially MP's do not require special training and assignment to an engagement team to do their job. When you alienate half the population it is more challenging to connect. As for influence my female medic could get more done than I could dream of.
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Don't tap dance around it! The Army has been doing this since the beginning of the war and probable well before that. The Marines have always been very restrictive of what females can do. The things females do in the army every day are completely alien to the Marines. This is non news, a PR swing for the Marine.