WEBVTT

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Every group of female friends
has the funny one,

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the one you go to
when you need a good cry,

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the one who tells you to suck it up
when you've had a hard day.

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And this group was no different.

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Except that this was a community
of groundbreaking women,

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who came together --
first to become teammates,

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then friends, and then family --

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in the least likely of places:

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on the Special Operations battlefield.

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This was a group of women
whose friendship and valor was cemented

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not only by what they had seen
and done at the tip of the spear,

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but by the fact that they were there

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at a time when women --
officially, at least --

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remained banned from ground combat,

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and America had no idea they existed.

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This story begins
with Special Operations leaders,

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some of the most tested men
in the United States military, saying

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"We need women to help us wage this war."

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"America would never kill its way
to the end of its wars," it argued,

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"...needed more knowledge,
and more understanding."

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And as everyone knows,

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if you want to understand what's happening
in a community and in a home,

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you talk to women,

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whether you're talking about
Southern Afghanistan,

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or Southern California.

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But in this case,
men could not talk to women,

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because in a conservative
and traditional society like Afghanistan,

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that would cause grave offense.

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So you needed women soldiers out there.

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That meant, at this time in the war,
that the women who would be recruited

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to serve alongside army rangers
and navy seals,

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would be seeing the kind of combat
experienced by less than five percent

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of the entire United States military.

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Less than five percent.

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So the call went out.

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"Female Soldiers:
Become a part of history.

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Join Special Operations
on the battlefield in Afghanistan.

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This is in 2011.

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And from Alabama to Alaska,

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a group of women who had always
wanted to do something that mattered

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alongside the best of the best,

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and to make a difference
for their country,

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answered that call to serve.

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And for them it was not about politics,
it was about serving with purpose.

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And so, the women who came
to North Carolina

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to compete for a spot on these teams

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which would put women
on the Special Operations front lines,

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landed and found very quickly

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a community, the likes of which,
they had never seen.

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Full of women who were as fierce
and as fit as they were,

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and as driven to make a difference.

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They didn't have to apologize
for who they were,

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and in fact, they could celebrate it.

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And what they found when they were there
was that all of a sudden,

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there were lots of people like them.

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As one of them said,

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"It was like you looked
around and realized

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there was more
than one giraffe at the zoo."

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(Laughter)

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Among this team of standouts was Cassie,

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a young woman who managed to be
an ROTC cadette, a sorority sister,

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and a Women's Studies minor,
all in one person.

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Tristan, a West Point track star,
who always ran and road marched

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with no socks,

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and had shoes whose smell proved it.

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(Laughter)

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Amber, a Heidi look-alike, who had
always wanted to be in the infantry,

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and when she found out
that women couldn't be,

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she decided to become an intel officer.

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She served in Bosnia,

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and later helped the FBI
to bust drug gangs in Pennsylvania.

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And then there was Kate,
who played high school football

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all four years,

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and actually wanted to drop out
after the first,

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to go into the glee club,

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but when boys told her
that girls couldn't play football,

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she decided to stay

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for all the little girls
who would come after her.

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For them, biology had shaped
part of their destiny,

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and put, as Cassie once said,

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"...everything noble
out of reach for girls."

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And yet, here was a chance
to serve with the best of the best

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on a mission that mattered
to their country,

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not despite the fact
that they were female,

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but because of it.

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This team of women, in many ways,
was like women everywhere.

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They wore makeup, and in fact,

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they would bond in the ladies' room
over eyeliner and eye pencil.

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They also wore body armor.

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They would put 50 pounds
of weight on their backs,

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and board the helicopter for an operation,

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and they would come back and watch
a movie called "Bridesmaids."

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(Laughter)

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They even wore a thing called Spanx,

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because, as they found very quickly,

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the uniforms made for men were
big where they should be small,

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and small where they should be big.

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So Lane, an Iraq War veteran --
you see her here on my left --

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decided she was going to go on Amazon

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and order a pair of Spanx to her base,

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so that her pants would fit better
when she went out on mission each night.

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These women would get together
over video conference,

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from all around Afghanistan
from their various bases,

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and talk about what it was like

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to be one of the only women
doing what they were doing.

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They would swap jokes,

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they would talk about
what was working, what wasn't,

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what they had learned to do well,
what they needed to do better.

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And they would talk about
some of the lighter moments of being women

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out on the Special Operations front lines,

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including the Shewee,

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which was a tool
that let you pee like a guy,

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although it's said to have had only
a 40 percent accuracy rate out there.

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(Laughter)

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These women lived in the "and."

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They proved you could be fierce
and you could be feminine.

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You could wear mascara and body armor.

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You could love CrossFit,
and really like cross-stitch.

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You could love to climb out of helicopters
and you could also love to bake cookies.

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Women live in the and every single day,

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and these women brought that
to this mission as well.

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On this life and death battlefield
they never forgot

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that being female is what brought them
to the front lines,

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but being a soldier is what would
prove themselves there.

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There was the night Amber went
out on mission,

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and in talking to the women of the house,

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realized that there was
a barricaded shooter lying in wait

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for the Afghan and American forces
who were waiting to enter the home.

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Another night it was Tristan,
who found out

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that there were pieces
that make up explosives

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all around the house
in which they were standing,

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and that in fact, explosives lay
all the way between there,

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and where they were
about to head that night.

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There was the night another one
of their teammates proved herself

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to a decidedly skeptical team of Seals,

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when she found the intel item
they were looking for

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wrapped up in a baby's wet diaper.

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And there was the night that Isabel,
another one of their teammates,

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found the things
that they were looking for,

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and received an Impact Award
from the rangers

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who said that without her,

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the things and the people
they were looking for that night

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would never have been found.

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That night and so many others,

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they went out to prove themselves,
not only for one another,

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but for everybody
who would come after them.

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And also for the men
alongside whom they served.

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We talk a lot about how
behind every great man is a good woman.

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And in this case,

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next to these women stood men
who wanted to see them succeed.

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The army ranger who trained them
had served 12 deployments.

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And when they told him
he had to go train girls,

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he had no idea what to expect.

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But at the end of 8 days with these
women in the summer of 2011,

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he told his fellow ranger,
"We have just witnessed history.

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These may well be
our own Tuskegee Airmen."

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(Applause)

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At the heart of this team
was the one person

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who everyone called "The Best of Us."

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She was a petite blond dynamo,

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who barely reached five-foot three.

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And she was this wild mix
of Martha Stewart,

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and what we know as G.I. Jane.

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She was someone who loved
to make dinner for her husband,

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her Kent State ROTC sweetheart
who pushed her to be her best,

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and to trust herself,

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and to test every limit she could.

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She also loved to put 50 pounds of weight
on her back and run for miles,

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and she loved to be a soldier.

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She was somebody who had a bread maker
in her office in Kandahar,

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and would bake a batch of raisin bread,
and then go to the gym

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and bust out 25 or 30 pull-ups
from a dead hang.

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She was the person who, if you needed
an extra pair of boots

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or a home-cooked dinner,
would be on your speed dial.

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Because she would never, ever
would talk to you

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about how good she was,

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but let her character speak
through action.

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She was famous for taking the hard right
over the easy wrong.

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And she was also famous
for walking up to a 15-foot rope,

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climbing it using only her arms,

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and then shuffling away and apologizing,

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because she knew she was supposed
to use both her arms and her legs,

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as the rangers had trained them.

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(Laughter)

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Some of our heroes return home
to tell their stories.

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And some of them don't.

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And on October 22, 2011,

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First Lieutenant Ashley White was killed
alongside two rangers

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Christopher Horns,

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and Christopher Demay.

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Her death threw this program built
for the shadows

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into a very public spotlight.

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Because after all,

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the ban on women in combat
was still very much in place.

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And at her funeral,

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the head of Army Special Operations came,
and gave a public testimony

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not just to the courage of Ashley White,

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but to all her team of sisters.

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"Make no mistake about it," he said,
"these women are warriors,"

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and they have written a new chapter
about what it means to be a female

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in the United States Army."

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Ashley's mom is a teacher's aide
and a school bus driver,

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who bakes cookies on the side.

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She doesn't remember much
about that overwhelming set of days,

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in which grief -- enormous grief --

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mixed with pride.

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But she does remember one moment.

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A stranger with a child
in her hand came up to her

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and she said, "Mrs. White,

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I brought my daughter here today,

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because I wanted her to know
what a hero was.

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And I wanted her to know
that heroes could be women, too."

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It is time to celebrate
all the unsung heroines

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who reach into their guts

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and find the heart and the grit
to keep going and to test every limit.

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This very unlikely band of sisters
bound forever in life and afterward,

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did indeed become part of history,

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and they paved the way for so many
who would come after them,

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as much as they stood on the shoulders
of those who had come before.

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These women showed that warriors come
in all shapes and sizes.

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And women can be heroes, too.

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Thank you so much.

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(Applause)