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CHAPTER 1
WOMEN AT WAR
I will not resign myself to the lot of women who bow their heads and become
concubines [mistresses]. I wish to ride the tempest, tame the waves, kill the sharks.
—VIETNAMESE WARRIOR TRIEU THI TRINH
third century CE
O
ne hot July afternoon in 2009, Captain Mary Jennings sat in her Pave Hawk
helicopter at the American air base in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Her shift had
just started and as copilot, she checked the helicopter’s radios and equipment.
MJ, as she was called, looked up as her crew—the pilot who led the mission, the
engineer, and the gunner—jogged over to her helicopter. It was REDCON-1, time
for the unit to move out.
The mission was to rescue three badly wounded American soldiers about
half an hour away. The convoy had hit an improvised explosive device, a simple
homemade device that detonates when a vehicle drives over it or a person
steps on it. The convoy was under attack by the Taliban, the insurgent (rebel)
Muslim group fighting the United States and allied troops in Afghanistan. As MJ
started the rotors, three parajumpers assigned to the mission climbed aboard the
helicopter with their medical supplies and gear. Parajumpers are part of the US
Air Force Special Operations force and are trained for all environments. They
engage the enemy in combat, if necessary, and provide medical assistance to
the wounded.
