Over a decade ago, women in combat made history by volunteering for some of the most challenging operations of the War on Terror. They were part of the Cultural Support Team (CST), deploying alongside elite military units.
The documentary series “Guerrera,” launched on Amazon, YouTube, and Google TV, shines a light on the vital role that women have played in combat situations.
Retired Sgt. First Class Jeramy Neusmith, an Army Ranger who trained the women of the CST program at Fort Bragg, emphasized the groundbreaking impact they had. He stated, “We did it — females in combat arms. The legacy is we broke the ceiling, the hard ceiling, not even a glass ceiling. [It] was f—ing iron. We breached it.”
“One of my pet peeves is when people try to blame something on a gender or a race or a sexual preference or anything but the human standing in front of you, who can or cannot do something,” said retired Seg. Major George Fraser, Special Forces, who also received four Purple Hearts and six Bronze Stars for Valor. “That’s the end of it for me.”
The series is dedicated to Capt. Jennifer Moreno, the second woman in the CST program to die in combat while out with her team of Rangers on Oct. 5, 2013, during a raid on a compound in Afghanistan.
Capt. Jennifer Moreno, left, laughs alongside retired Master Sgt. Catherine Harris in Afghanistan during a deployment with the Army’s Cultural Support Team (CST) in 2011. (Dulcinea Productions)
Moreno and the team she was with were ambushed after combatants lured the unit into a deactivated minefield, before the IEDs were then activated by the terrorists they were pursuing.
The situation was akin to “teleporting yourself into the middle of a minefield,” explained Special Operations Veteran Luke Ryan, Army Ranger, who was there that night.
The operation, which was expected to be a “quick snatch and go,” became one of the most brutal nights of the war, which saw four American soldiers killed and 30 others wounded.
Moreno, a trained nurse, was killed after she ran across the IED-embedded compound in an attempt to reach a fallen comrade.
“She was going to save a life come hell or high water,” said retired Sgt. Tom Block, Army Ranger, who was severely wounded by a suicide bomber that night, permanently costing him his right eye. “She embodied heroism that night.”
From left: Special Operations Veteran Jessica Yahn, Capt. Jennifer Moreno and Maj. Talisa Dauz are pictured during a deployment with Army’s Cultural Support Team (CST) program in Afghanistan in 2011. (Dulcinea Productions)
Sgt. Joseph Peters, Special Agent; Sgt. Patrick Hawkins, Army Ranger; and Pfc. Cody Patterson, Army Ranger, were also killed in the IED ambush.
The CST program, along with others like Lioness and Female Engagement Teams, contributed to the U.S. Department of Defense’s decision in 2013 to officially open up combat roles to women.
Women would not be permitted to vie for the elite slots until 2015, which would see the first two women to graduate from the infamous Army Ranger school. Since then, over 140 women have graduated from the program alongside their male peers.
Though the Army in 2022 lowered general physical standards for women and older troops completing annual physical exams, it did not alter the standards required from graduates of its elite programs like the Rangers or Green Berets.
Army Capt. Kristen Griest participates in training at the U.S. Army Ranger School at Fort Benning, Georgia, on April 20, 2015. Griest and 1st Lt. Shaye Haver were the first female soldiers to graduate from Ranger School. (Scott Brooks/U.S. Army via Getty Images)
The women of the CST program have championed calls to maintain universal standards for males and females in arms, but they flat reject the argument that women shouldn’t be allowed in combat.
When asked what Agee hopes viewers will take away from the series, he said first and foremost the “recognition of unsung heroes in our midst” and the “sacrifices that our men and women who serve in the military take day in and day out.”
Agee quoted a comment made by Ryan in the series in which he said, “There is a mechanism of dialogue that is broken in the United States right now.”
“I really would love ‘Guerrera’ to go a small step in fixing that mechanism of dialogue,” he said. “I hope we can watch a documentary film that deals with complicated concepts, that we will discuss them respectfully.”
“We can differ in terms of opinion, but we can all come back at the end of the day to understand and to underline the unity… [the] thing that we need the most of in this country,” Agee added. “It’s what makes a military unit thrive, and it’s also what I think makes a society thrive.”
The series “Guerrera” will also be released on Apple in the coming weeks.
