Today, we are honored to have retired US Army Captain Christina Trembley join us and talk about the eight months she spent as a Cultural Support Team member attached to Special Forces’ elite Operational Detachment Alphas in Northern Afghanistan in 2011. Responding to the needs of the local women and children in various villages, Chris spearheaded a partnership with the Afghan Ministry of Education to train women teachers, supported a battered women’s shelter and, along with her CST partner, ended up providing Special Forces with invaluable intel that literally saved lives and informed larger tactical operations. Listening to Chris’s fascinating experiences reveals how adding all-female CSTs to Special Operations in Afghanistan opened up 70% of the population and increased everyone’s understanding of the population they were operating in.

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