Lioness Documentary Honors Women in Combat

Lioness is a fascinating new documentary by Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers and it gives us an inside look at the first women to engage in ground combat in U.S. history.

In 2003, the Army created the Lioness program, which sends female support soldiers out on missions with all-male combat units in Iraq and Afghanistan. Spc. Shannon Morgan, Spc. Rebecca Nava, Cpt. Anastasia Breslow, Sgt. Ranie Ruthig and Mjr. Kate Guttormsen, all of the First Engineer Battalion, were some of the first members of Team Lioness.

We first meet the soldiers after they returned home from Iraq and were still trying to adjust to life after war. Nearly all of the women appeared to be suffering symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Spc. Morgan had severe depression and anxiety. Spc. Nava experienced flashbacks. Sgt. Ruthig admitted she had violent mood swings and that her relationship with her young daughter had suffered as a result. Both Cpt. Breslow and Mjr. Guttormsen seemed incredibly sad and wounded by their experiences in Iraq.

It's easy to understand why. Each of the soldiers went to Iraq expecting to serve in primarily support positions. Spc. Morgan and Sgt. Ruthig were mechanics. Spc. Nava was a supply clerk. Cpt. Breslow worked in signal (communications). Mjr. Guttormsen was a company commander, the only woman to hold that position in her battalion. But when they got to Iraq in 2003, they were asked to join the newly-created Lioness program,

Initially, the Lioness missions were relatively simple. Spc. Nava describes her work on the missions as helping "calm the women and children. We gave the kids candy, toys and school supplies. So in the beginning, the Army didn't look so bad to them."

As the war intensified, so did the missions. They began going with their male colleagues on house-to-house raids in the middle of the night, searching for weapons or suspected insurgents. They guarded the interpreter and searched the women and children for contraband. "It was strange invading these homes late night. It was hard to imagine these families plotting against us," Cpt. Breslow wrote in her journal. Sgt. Ruthig concurred saying, "I felt like the Gestapo".

In early 2004, the Lioness teams partnered with the Marines in Ramadi. They went out with the Marines to search homes. They separated the women and children from the men and sometimes had to forcibly search the women. As the insurgency gained strength in Ramadi, violence ensued. The Marines and the Lioness women faced intense firefight, which the female soldiers didn't have the proper training or support for. Spc. Morgan, temporarily working with a firing team, was left behind in the middle of an ambush and had to figure out how and where to take cover. During another firefight, Cpt. Breslow realized she didn't know how to fire the missile on the humvee if she had to. "I felt we needed to know more," she said.

Because women are technically banned from engaged in combat, the Lioness women didn't have even the basic combat training so it was even more dangerous for them than it was for men. It didn't matter. As Spc. Morgan said, "We didn't stop. We covered over five or seven miles of nothing but insurgents (a day). They were throwing grenades at us and rockets, mortars."

No matter what, these soldiers kept going. When they came home, their heroics went largely unnoticed because they were women. "America needs to know that their daughters are doing the exact same thing that the males are doing now," said Spc. Morgan.

Lioness is a powerful reminder that women's roles in the military are rapidly changing. Female soldiers do see combat in Iraq and Afghanistan on a regular basis. As a result, women returning from war do suffer from PTSD and related conditions. Most importantly, regardless of how you feel about their mission overseas, these women have endured and sacrificed more than most of us can imagine. Female soldiers and veterans deserve our respect and support just as much as their male counterparts.

Lioness is currently available for purchase at the film's website, which also has a plethora of information about women in combat and women veterans. The film will be available on DVD via Amazon and other retailers on October 27.