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Every group of female friends[br]has the funny one,

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the one you go to[br]when you need a good cry,

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the one who tells you to suck it up[br]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[br]of groundbreaking women

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who came together --

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first to become teammates,[br]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[br]whose friendship and valor was cemented

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not only by what they had seen[br]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 --[br]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[br]with Special Operations leaders,

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some of the most tested men[br]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[br]to the end of its wars," it argued.

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"Needed more knowledge[br]and more understanding."

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And as everyone knows,

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

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you talk to women,

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whether you're talking about[br]Southern Afghanistan,

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or Southern California.

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But in this case,[br]men could not talk to women,

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because in a conservative[br]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,[br]that the women who would be recruited

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to serve alongside Army Rangers[br]and Navy SEALs,

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would be seeing the kind of combat[br]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:[br]Become a part of history.

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Join Special Operations[br]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[br]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[br]for their country,

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answered that call to serve.

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

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And so, the women who came[br]to North Carolina

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to compete for a spot on these teams

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which would put women[br]on the Special Operations front lines,

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landed and found[br]very quickly a community,

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the likes of which they had never seen.

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Full of women who were as fierce[br]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[br]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[br]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[br]around and realized

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there was more[br]than one giraffe at the zoo."

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Among this team of standouts was Cassie,

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a young woman who managed to be[br]an ROTC cadet, a sorority sister

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

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Tristan, a West Point track star,[br]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[br]always wanted to be in the infantry,

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and when she found out[br]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[br]to bust drug gangs in Pennsylvania.

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And then there was Kate,[br]who played high school football

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all four years,

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and actually wanted to drop out[br]after the first,

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to go into the glee club,

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

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she decided to stay

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for all the little girls[br]who would come after her.

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For them, biology had shaped[br]part of their destiny,

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and put, as Cassie once said,

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"everything noble[br]out of reach for girls."

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

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on a mission that mattered[br]to their country,

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not despite the fact[br]that they were female,

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but because of it.

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This team of women, in many ways,[br]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[br]over eyeliner and eye pencil.

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They also wore body armor.

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They would put 50 pounds[br]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[br]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[br]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 --[br]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[br]when she went out on mission each night.

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These women would get together[br]over video conference

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from all around Afghanistan[br]from their various bases,

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and they would talk about what it was like

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

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They would swap jokes,

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they would talk about[br]what was working, what wasn't,

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what they had learned to do well,[br]what they needed to do better.

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And they would talk about[br]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[br]that let you pee like a guy,

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although it's said to have had only[br]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[br]and you could be feminine.

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You could wear mascara and body armor.

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

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You could love to climb out of helicopters[br]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[br]to this mission as well.

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On this life and death battlefield[br]they never forgot

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that being female may have brought them[br]to the front lines,

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but being a soldier is what would[br]prove themselves there.

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There was the night Amber went[br]out on mission,

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and in talking to the women of the house,

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realized that there was[br]a barricaded shooter lying in wait

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

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Another night it was Tristan[br]who found out

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that there were pieces[br]that make up explosives

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all around the house[br]in which they were standing,

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

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and where they were[br]about to head that night.

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There was the night another one[br]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[br]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,[br]another one of their teammates,

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found the things[br]that they were looking for,

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and received an Impact Award[br]from the Rangers

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who said that without her,

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the things and the people[br]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,[br]not only for one another,

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but for everybody[br]who would come after them.

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And also for the men[br]alongside whom they served.

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We talk a lot about how[br]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[br]who wanted to see them succeed.

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The Army Ranger who trained them[br]had served 12 deployments.

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And when they told him[br]that 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 eight days with these[br]women in the summer of 2011,

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he told his fellow Ranger,[br]"We have just witnessed history.

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These may well be[br]our own Tuskegee Airmen."

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(Applause)

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At the heart of this team[br]was the one person

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who everyone called "the best of us."

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She was a petite blonde dynamo,

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who barely reached five-foot-three.

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And she was this wild mix[br]of Martha Stewart,

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and what we know as G.I. Jane.

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

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her Kent State ROTC sweetheart[br]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[br]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[br]in her office in Kandahar,

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

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

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

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

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Because she never, ever would talk to you

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about how good she was,

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but let her character speak[br]through action.

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

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And she was also famous[br]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[br]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[br]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[br]alongside two Rangers,

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Christopher Horns

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and Kristoffer Domeij.

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Her death threw this program built[br]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[br]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,[br]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,[br]"these women are warriors,

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and they have written a new chapter[br]in 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[br]and a school bus driver,

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who bakes cookies on the side.

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She doesn't remember much[br]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[br]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[br]what a hero was.

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

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It is time to celebrate[br]all the unsung heroines

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who reach into their guts

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

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This very unlikely band of sisters[br]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[br]who would come after them,

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

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

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And women can be heroes, too.

0:11:02.648,0:11:03.800
Thank you so much.

0:11:03.824,0:11:09.950
(Applause)