Where: A-stan When: 2013 Where: 60 miles north of Kandahar Airfield

We received intel that a village loyal to the U.S. was attacked, and the village elder tortured/beheaded, women and children raped. Our whole platoon flew in two miles away from the village during the night, including FET (female engagement team, only they were allowed to interact with the women).

As we moved towards the village, FET decided to strike a conversation with us and talked about how they were basically infantry too, they could do what we could, etc. Long story short, we cleared the village while FET stayed back, took out 6 on their side, 3 casualties on our side.

We had to stay 2 days in the village to make sure they were safe, which meant patrolling the area constantly non-stop. FET finished their 'job' (literally 1 hour talking to women) and they spent the rest of the mission sleeping in one of the huts. Since we were down 3 men, we asked them if they could help out with either patrolling or guarding, and they replied that it was not their job. Oh, and it was raining the whole time too so it was fucking miserable for us. FET stayed dry though, and took the good MREs. I am curious to know if any other vets here have had similar experiences with females in the military.

Moral of the story: You can only count on men.

Note: We had some medics, a fister (forward observer), a mechanic, AND the translators coming out with us. All men.