Break the ‘iron’ roof: the new ‘warrior’ series explores the vital role of American female troops in combat

The women in combat broke the “iron” roof more than a decade when welded women were offered as volunteers to throw themselves into some of the most difficult operations carried out during the war against terror, deploying with military elite units Under a working group known as the Cultural Support Team (CST).

A new three -part documentary series, “warrior”, which leaned on Saturday in Amazon, YouTube and Google TV, reveals the indispensable role that women have played in combat.

“We did it: females in combat arms. The legacy is that we broke the roof, the hard roof, not even a glass roof,” said the retired sergeant. Jeramy Neusmith of First Class, Ranger of the Army, which helped train women of the CST program in Fort Bragg. “(() It was iron. We broke it.”

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The series discovers little known details about the women’s troops that were successfully matched with special elite operations units such as Delta Force and the Army Rangers. Its objective was to address intelligence gaps in Afghanistan and Iraq Talking with local women and children who had a deep knowledge of active terrorist movements.

Although the documentary series was years of creating producer and director Will Will Agee and executive producer Jessica Yahn, who served in the CST program, the time of its launch coincides with a moment in the United States where some in the top positions are questioning Once again if women should have the right to fight with the United States elite.

“I am directly giving that we should not have women in combat roles. It has not made us more effective, it has not made us more lethal, it has made the fight more complicated,” then the then secretary and now confirmed secretary of the defense Pete Hegseth said during a November 2024 interview “Sean Ryan show. “Later in an interview in” The Megyn Kelly Show “, he seemed to have changed his position and said:” If we have the right standard and women meet that standard, Roger. Come on.”

Hegesh did not repeat his previously declared beliefs when they were pressed during their January confirmation and has said that it does not plan to reverse the 2013 combat exclusion policy, which allowed women to compete for elite positions.

But his comments renewed an ancient debate on the effectiveness of women in combat, despite more than a decade of evidence that proves the capacity and operational efficacy.

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“Regardless of the side of the political spectrum in which it is found, in which there are many Republicans, many Democrats in” warrior “, each of them, man and woman, want a high level, and that is such an unifying point”, Yahn told Fox News Digital. “I hope that what comes out of the movie is just the essence that unites us most that divides us.

“And it is just a matter of reaching that rich speech and breaking some of those things that we can immediately perceive that the other side is thinking.”

In the series, Neusmith argues that the turning point in what would become an important change in American politics for women in combat began after the first lieutenant Ashley White was killed along with the forces of the Ranger during an operation In Afghanistan in 2011.

White became the first CST member to be killed in combat after her and the ranger team to which she was attached entered a trapped compound with improvised explosive devices (FDI). White and two other rangers were killed on October 22, 2011.

“Ashley died, died in combat. No rangers stopped, no rangers turned around, he cried, nobody cried, right in the target,” Neusmith stands out in the series. “They did their job, and then they returned and handled the death of their partner. We hit the stigma.

“All stigmas that put there: bone density, you know, men will be susceptible, you know, they will pay attention to women. No,” he continued. “I mean, they cared, but they didn’t care at that time. They had to do their job.”

Although CST women were assigned to elite units, they were not special forces, and it was still illegal that women served in combat roles when the first batch of CSTS deployed in 2011. However, they were trained not only to keep day with special forces, but to involve enemy combatants along with the best of the best in the United States.

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“One of my pet inconvenience is when people try to blame something or a sexual race or preference or anything other than the human in front of you, who can or cannot do something,” he said Be removed. The greatest George Fraser, special forces, which also received four purple hearts and six bronze stars for value. “That is the end for me.”

The series is dedicated to Captain Jennifer Moreno, the second woman in the CST program die in combat While he was with his Rangers team on October 5, 2013, during a raid in a complex in Afghanistan.

Moreno and the team he was with was ambushed after the combatants attracted the unity to a disabled mined field, before the terrorists activated the FDIs before they were chasing.

The situation was similar to “teleported in the middle of a mined field,” said special operations veteran Luke Ryan, Ranger of the Army, who was there that night.

The operation, which was expected to be a “starting and fast go”, became one of the most brutal nights of the war, which saw four dead American soldiers and another 30 injured.

Moreno, a trained nurse, was killed after she crossed the complex embedded in FDI in an attempt to reach a fallen comrade.

“She was going to save a life in hell or water,” said the retired sergeant. Tom Block, Army Ranger, who was seriously injured by a suicidal terrorist that night, permanently costing his right eye. “She embodied heroism that night.”

Sergeant Joseph Peters, special agent; Sergeant Patrick Hawkins, army rangers; and PFC. Cody Patterson, Ranger of the Army, also died in IED ambush.

The CST Program, together with others such as Leons and Feminine commitment teams, contributed to the decision of the United States Department of Defense in 2013 to officially open women’s fighting roles.

Women would not be allowed to compete for elite slot machines until 2015, which would see the first two women in Graduate of the Infamous School of Army Rauses. Since then, more than 140 women have graduated from the program along with their male classmates.

Although the army in 2022 reduced the general physical standards for women and major troops that completed annual physical exams, did not alter the required standards of the graduates of their elite programs such as the Green Boina Rangers.

The women of the CST program have defended calls to maintain universal standards for men and women in arms, but reject the argument that women should not afford in combat.

When asked what AGEE expects the spectators to take away the series, he said in the first place the “recognition of heroes not recognized in our environment” and the “sacrifices that our men and women who serve in the army take day after day.”

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Agee cited a comment made by Ryan in the series in which he said: “There is a dialogue mechanism that breaks in the United States at this time.”

“I would really love ‘Warrior’ to take a small step to fix that dialogue mechanism,” he said. “I hope we can see a documentary film that occupies complicated concepts, that we will discuss them respectfully.”

“We can differ in terms of opinion, but we can all return to the end of the day to understand and underline unity … (what we need more in this country,” Agee added. “It is what makes a military unit prosper, and it is also what I think makes a society prosper.”

The “Warrior” series will also be launched in Apple in the coming weeks.