All-female teams reach out to Afghan women - Marine Corps News, news from Iraq - Marine Corps Times

All-female teams reach out to Afghan women

Cpl. Sara Bryant is training like an infantry Marine about to hit the front lines.

She’s learned to clear houses and patrol, and she’s refreshed her land navigation, martial arts and machine gun firing skills.

But Bryant isn’t a grunt. She’s a radio operator with 9th Communications Battalion out of Camp Pendleton, Calif., and one of more than 20 female Marines who will train future members of Female Engagement Teams to go into Afghanistan.

The FETs, initiated in February by the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade as a way to reach out to Afghan women, may serve a crucial role in the counterinsurgency efforts in Afghanistan. Simply interacting with local women, offering them aspirin and vitamins, can make an impact, Marine officials say.

It’s a job that takes women outside of the wire and closer to combat, blurring the rules set by a federal law that prohibits women from being in the infantry. But Bryant and others say they want the opportunity to participate in infantry missions as well.

“We need to stay with the infantry units to get to know the area and the population and for the people to get used to seeing the same faces,” Bryant said.

FETs in 2nd MEB are cobbled together for specific missions, pulled from subordinate commands, then sent back to fulfill their primary jobs. They range in size depending on the mission. They’re manned by volunteers — ranging in rank from junior Marines to officers, and with military occupational specialties ranging from intelligence to logistics.

A typical FET numbers between two and four Marines, though they can be larger depending on the mission. Current key areas for the teams include the more stable areas in Helmand province, such as the Nawa and Now Zad districts.

Team members of 2nd MEB go through an initial five-day course and, when they can, attend one-day-a-week refresher training the MEB offers.

The MEB is not alone. In November, Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command deployed its first special operations task force to oversee all spec-ops forces within a region in western Afghanistan, and the task force includes a FET with four female Marines.

It is unclear whether the additional 8,500 Marine forces heading to Afghanistan this year will include more FETs.

MarSOC and 2nd MEB officials agree they must make an effort to reach out to Afghan women. The MEB’s female teams are making headway, said Maj. Tadd Turczyn, officer in charge of 2nd MEB’s FETs.

Before 2nd MEB’s units started rotating out with other units this fall, it had nearly 100 women trained to serve on teams.

“We’re getting little bits of feedback here and there that the women are making just a tiny difference, but it’s measurable,” Turczyn said.

One example, he said, was earlier this year when Marines on patrol were approached by Afghan men asking about the teams. According to Turczyn, the Afghan men said the local women had heard about the female Marines and were “praying they would come and talk to them and see what they were like.”

“I can see the huge potential that this program has for reaching the women in this society,” Turczyn said. “It’s wrong for another man to even look at them. It’s very important that we reach them. They’re the biggest influence on the children’s lives up until about age 16. If we’re able to have our females interact with them and just let them see who we are and what we are, we can make a difference.”

Unlike “Lioness,” a program the military established in Iraq more than five years ago that embeds female Marines and soldiers with infantry units to search Iraqi women, there is no guidance from top Corps leadership on how to train and establish FETs.

“We’re just kind of taking baby steps with the program,” Turczyn said.

The MEB and 9th Communications Battalion have had no problems finding female Marines wanting to join a FET. The battalion has set up a four-month-long training package for Marines who will eventually train others to be part of future teams.

“We get calls literally every other day from Marines who are interested in being a part of it,” said Lt. Col. Julie Nethercot, 9th Communications Battalion’s commander. “It is a very interesting role and mission for them. They’re really interested in making a difference. They just want to be a part of something like this.”

Volunteers are motivated and eager to get outside of the wire, despite the danger.

“We try and manage to mitigate the risks,” Turczyn said. “They could be out for a day or two or even more, and they’re going to be taking the same full battle gear that the male Marines have. They won’t go out with the maneuver elements, but they do go out as a support element. Once the major combat operations in that area [have] ceased, the FETs will move into an area where they’re needed.”

The dangers only push female Marines to train harder, said Bryant, who in 2008 served a short stint as a Lioness in Fallujah. But she admits the job isn’t for everyone.

“They realize that with this counterinsurgency fight, females are having to step up to the plate, and they’re doing it, and they’re doing it well,” she said. “Fifty-one percent of the population in Afghanistan is women. These teams are just another foot in the door to prove to them that we’re not there to be an occupying force, but that we’re there to rid that country of the Taliban.”

She has helped create the training FETs need to “easily integrate into an infantry unit.”

In February, she and other female team trainers will begin teaching volunteers slated to deploy this year to Afghanistan with thousands of other Marines.

“This is what I joined the Marine Corps to do,” she said. “This is what it’s all about. This is the closest a woman will get to doing the infantry ... side of the house. I can’t wait to get over there.”