"Lioness": Female soldiers in combat

The "Lioness"  is a documentary made about the role of women in the current war in Iraq.  Mary D. Ross, Retired Army and Deputy Executive Director, Operation Stand Down Nashville, Inc. believes this is an extraordinary documentary about women in combat.  She goes on to say, "The history of women in the military is full of examples of women in harms way.  With today’s technology there is no such thing as a ‘front line’.  This film not only shows the effects that war has on women in the military but also shows their courage and commitment.  They serve with honor!"

In addition, Felicia R. Lee of the New York Times wrote the following article titled "Battleground: Female Soldiers in the Line of Fire,"  about women serving in Iraq.  Here are some snippets:

After Shannon Morgan returned from serving in Iraq, the memories of killing and carnage continued to haunt her, memories that some told her were unexpected for a female soldier. Department of Defense policy bars female soldiers from direct ground combat, but for Ms. Morgan, like the four other female soldiers profiled in the documentary "Lioness," that regulation meant little in the heat of battle.

Attached to all-male combat units in the Army and the Marines as part of the Lioness program, the female troops were used to search Muslim women as needed and to defuse the cultural tensions caused by strange men interacting with Iraqi women. But when fighting broke out, the female soldiers fought back.
 
"We’d been downtown searching houses, and fighting would break out," Staff Sgt. Ranie Ruthig, a former mechanic with a Lioness team, said in a recent interview. "We’ve had grenades thrown at us, shooting at us with AK-47’s. It's a fight-or-flight thing. When someone is shooting at you, you don’t say, ‘Stop the war, I’m a girl.' "

As Ms. Morgan says toward the end of "Lioness," which had its broadcast premiere on Wednesday night at 9:30 on Channel 13 in New York, "This is a new thing for people to realize that their daughters are over doing the exact same thing that males are doing now."

The documentary makes the point that the nature of the Iraq war — fuzzy front lines and guerrilla tactics — has thrust more female soldiers (who represent 14 percent of active-duty enlisted personnel) into enemy fire than ever before. And, like the men, the women sometimes find the return to civilian life difficult, suffering the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the depression and sleeplessness that come with it.

One of the filmmakers argues that the Lioness teams are in a "gray zone" when it comes to combat. The filmmakers sent "Lioness" to the public affairs office at the Army for fact-checking and as a courtesy, and "they said O.K."
When filming began, the documentary focused on five women: Specialist Morgan and Sergeant Ruthig, both mechanics; Specialist Rebecca Nava, a supply clerk from Jamaica, Queens; Maj. Kate Pendry Guttormsen, a West Point graduate whose hometown is Toledo, Ohio; and Capt. Anastasia Breslow, a communications specialist from Fort Bragg, the Army post in North Carolina, according to biographical information supplied by the filmmakers.

Catch one of our most recent posts on the Veterans' Blog referencing PTSD. It is titled: "PTSD afflicts soldiers still on duty." 

Mary thank you for the heads-up on "Lioness," and thank you for your service!  Thank you for your work with Operation Stand Down Nashville, Inc.