<p>In 2010, the Army created Cultural Support Teams, a secret pilot program to insert women alongside Special Operations soldiers battling in Afghanistan. The Army reasoned that women could play a unique role on Special Ops teams: accompanying their male colleagues on raids and, while those soldiers were searching for insurgents, questioning the mothers, sisters, daughters and wives living at the compound. Their presence had a calming effect on enemy households, but more importantly, the CSTs were able to search adult women for weapons and gather crucial intelligence. They could build relationships—<em>woman to woman</em>—in ways that male soldiers in an Islamic country never could.</p><p>In <em>Ashley's War</em>, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon uses on-the-ground reporting and a finely tuned understanding of the complexities of war to tell the story of CST-2, a unit of women hand-picked from the Army to serve in this highly specialized and challenging role. The pioneers of CST-2 proved for the first time, at least to some grizzled Special Operations soldiers, that women might be physically and mentally tough enough to become one of them.</p><p>The price of this professional acceptance came in personal loss and social isolation: the only people who really understand the women of CST-2 are each other. At the center of this story is a friendship cemented by &quot;Glee,&quot; video games, and the shared perils and seductive powers of up-close combat. At the heart of the team is the tale of a beloved and effective soldier, Ashley White.</p><p>Much as she did in her bestselling <em>The Dressmaker of Khair Khana</em>, Lemmon transports readers to a world they previously had no idea existed: a community of women called to fulfill the military's mission to &quot;win hearts and minds&quot; and bound together by danger, valor, and determination. <em>Ashley's War</em> is a gripping combat narrative and a moving story of friendship—a book that will change the way readers think about war and the meaning of service.</p>