Every group of female friends has the funny one, the one you go to when you need a good cry, the one who tells you to suck it up when you've had a hard day. And this group was no different. Except that this was a community of groundbreaking women who came together -- first to become teammates, then friends, and then family -- in the least likely of places: on the Special Operations battlefield. This was a group of women whose friendship and valor was cemented not only by what they had seen and done at the tip of the spear, but by the fact that they were there at a time when women -- officially, at least -- remained banned from ground combat, and America had no idea they existed.
Dalam setiap grup pertemanan wanita pasti ada teman yang humoris, yang anda datangi saat anda sedih, yang menyuruh anda melupakan masalah di hari yang buruk. Begitu juga kelompok perempuan ini. Kecuali bahwa mereka adalah sekelompok wanita pioneer yang pada awalnya berkumpul untuk menjadi rekan, lalu sahabat dan akhirnya keluarga -- di tempat yang paling tak lazim: yaitu di medan perang Operasi Khusus. Mereka sekelompok wanita yang persahabatan dan keberaniannya diikat tak hanya oleh apa yang mereka lihat dan lakukan di saat genting, tapi juga oleh fakta bahwa mereka di sana di saat wanita -- setidaknya secara resmi -- masih dilarang di dalam pertempuran, dan Amerika tidak tahu mereka ada disana.
This story begins with Special Operations leaders, some of the most tested men in the United States military, saying, "We need women to help us wage this war." "America would never kill its way to the end of its wars," it argued. "Needed more knowledge and more understanding."
Kisah ini berawal dari para pemimpin Operasi Khusus, beberapa pria terunggul dalam uji militer Amerika berkata, "Kita butuh wanita untuk membantu kita berperang". "Amerika takkan pernah berhenti sampai akhir peperangan," katanya. "Dibutuhkan lebih banyak lagi pengetahuan dan pemahaman".
And as everyone knows, if you want to understand what's happening in a community and in a home, you talk to women, whether you're talking about Southern Afghanistan, or Southern California. But in this case, men could not talk to women, because in a conservative and traditional society like Afghanistan, that would cause grave offense. So you needed women soldiers out there. That meant, at this time in the war, that the women who would be recruited to serve alongside Army Rangers and Navy SEALs, would be seeing the kind of combat experienced by less than five percent of the entire United States military. Less than five percent.
Dan seperti yang orang tahu, jika anda ingin paham yang terjadi dalam masyarakat dan keluarga, bicaralah pada wanita, apakah anda bicara tentang Afganistan Selatan, atau California Selatan. Tapi di sini, pria tak dapat berbicara pada wanita, karena di masyarakat konservatif dan tradisional seperti Afganistan, hal itu menyebabkan pelanggaran serius. Jadi anda butuh serdadu wanita di sana. Yang berarti, dalam masa perang ini, wanita yang akan direkrut untuk mengabdi bersama AD & AL Amerika, akan melihat jenis peperangan yang dialami kurang dari lima persen keseluruhan militer Amerika. Kurang dari lima persen.
So the call went out. "Female soldiers: Become a part of history. Join Special Operations on the battlefield in Afghanistan." This is in 2011. And from Alabama to Alaska, a group of women who had always wanted to do something that mattered alongside the best of the best, and to make a difference for their country, answered that call to serve. And for them it was not about politics, it was about serving with purpose.
Jadi pengumuman disebarluaskan. "Prajurit wanita: Menjadi bagian sejarah. Bergabunglah dalam Operasi Khusus di medan perang Afganistan". Waktu itu tahun 2011. Dan dari Alabama sampai Alaska, sejumlah wanita yang bercita-cita untuk melakukan sesuatu yang berarti bersama dengan yang terbaik dari yang terbaik, dan untuk membawa perubahan bagi negara, menjawab panggilan untuk mengabdi. Bagi mereka, ini bukan tentang politik, tapi mengabdi dengan tujuan.
And so, the women who came to North Carolina to compete for a spot on these teams which would put women on the Special Operations front lines, landed and found very quickly a community, the likes of which they had never seen. Full of women who were as fierce and as fit as they were, and as driven to make a difference. They didn't have to apologize for who they were, and in fact, they could celebrate it. And what they found when they were there was that all of a sudden, there were lots of people like them. As one of them said, "It was like you looked around and realized there was more than one giraffe at the zoo."
Dan juga, wanita yang datang ke Carolina Utara untuk bersaing mendapatkan posisi pada tim yang akan menempatkan wanita di garis depan Operasi Khusus, mendarat dan langsung menemukan komunitas yang belum pernah mereka lihat. Para wanita yang seberani dan setangguh seperti mereka sendiri, dan tergerak untuk membuat perubahan. Mereka tak perlu menyesali diri mereka yang dulu, dan bahkan mereka boleh merayakannya. Dan yang mereka temui saat mereka di sana, ternyata ada banyak orang seperti mereka. Seseorang berkata, "Seperti melihat sekeliling dan sadar ada lebih dari satu jerapah di kebun binatang".
Among this team of standouts was Cassie, a young woman who managed to be an ROTC cadet, a sorority sister and a Women's Studies minor, all in one person. Tristan, a West Point track star, who always ran and road marched with no socks, and had shoes whose smell proved it. (Laughter) Amber, a Heidi look-alike, who had always wanted to be in the infantry, and when she found out that women couldn't be, she decided to become an intel officer. She served in Bosnia, and later helped the FBI to bust drug gangs in Pennsylvania. And then there was Kate, who played high school football all four years, and actually wanted to drop out after the first, to go into the glee club, but when boys told her that girls couldn't play football, she decided to stay for all the little girls who would come after her.
Salah satu di antara tim unggulan ini adalah Cassie, wanita yang berhasil menjadi kadet ROTC (pelatihan militer terbesar di Amerika), mahasiswi yang mempelajari Studi Perempuan, semuanya dalam seseorang. Tristan, seorang bintang trek West Point, yang sering berlari dan pawai jalan kaki tanpa kaus kaki, dengan sepatu bau yang membuktikannya. (Tertawa) Amber, yang mirip Heidi, bercita-cita masuk infanteri, dan ketika ia tahu wanita tak bisa melakukannya, ia putuskan untuk menjadi petugas intelijen. Ia berkarya di Bosnia, dan akhirnya membantu FBI menangkap geng narkoba di Pennsylvania. Lalu ada Kate, yang bermain sepak bola di SMU empat tahun penuh, dan sebenarnya ingin berhenti di tahun kedua untuk bergabung dengan klub nyanyi, tapi saat anak laki-laki bilang perempuan tak bisa bermain sepak bola, ia memutuskan untuk bertahan demi semua gadis kecil yang mengikutinya.
For them, biology had shaped part of their destiny, and put, as Cassie once said, "everything noble out of reach for girls." And yet, here was a chance to serve with the best of the best on a mission that mattered to their country, not despite the fact that they were female, but because of it.
Bagi mereka, faktor biologis membentuk sebagian takdir mereka, dan membuat, seperti yang Cassie katakan, "Semua hal yang mulia di luar jangkauan perempuan". Tetapi inilah kesempatan mengabdi bersama yang terbaik dari yang terbaik pada suatu misi yang penting bagi negara, bukan terlepas dari kenyataan bahwa mereka wanita, tapi justru karenanya.
This team of women, in many ways, was like women everywhere. They wore makeup, and in fact, they would bond in the ladies' room over eyeliner and eye pencil. They also wore body armor. They would put 50 pounds of weight on their backs, and board the helicopter for an operation, and they would come back and watch a movie called "Bridesmaids." (Laughter) They even wore a thing called Spanx, because, as they found very quickly, the uniforms made for men were big where they should be small, and small where they should be big. So Lane, an Iraq War veteran -- you see her here on my left -- decided she was going to go on Amazon and order a pair of Spanx to her base, so that her pants would fit better when she went out on mission each night.
Tim wanita ini, dalam berbagai hal, seperti wanita di mana pun. Mereka bersolek dan bahkan mereka menjalin persahabatan di ruang wanita atas kuas dan pensil mata. Mereka juga memakai baju zirah. Mereka bisa membawa bobot 22.7 kg di punggung mereka, dan naik helikopter untuk operasi militer, dan mereka akan pulang, dan menonton film "Bridesmaids". (Tertawa) Mereka bahkan memakai sesuatu yang disebut Spanx, karena mereka tiba-tiba sadar, seragam yang dibuat untuk pria itu besar di tempat yang seharusnya kecil, dan kecil yang seharusnya besar untuk mereka. Jadi, Lane, seorang veteran Perang Irak -- Anda lihat di sisi kiri saya -- memutuskan untuk membuka situs Amazon dan memesan sepasang Spanx ke markasnya, sehingga celananya bisa lebih pas ketika ia menjalankan misi setiap malam.
These women would get together over video conference from all around Afghanistan from their various bases, and they would talk about what it was like to be one of the only women doing what they were doing. They would swap jokes, they would talk about what was working, what wasn't, what they had learned to do well, what they needed to do better. And they would talk about some of the lighter moments of being women out on the Special Operations front lines, including the Shewee, which was a tool that let you pee like a guy, although it's said to have had only a 40 percent accuracy rate out there. (Laughter)
Wanita ini berkumpul pada konferensi video di seluruh Afganistan dari berbagai markas, mereka akan mengobrol tentang rasanya menjadi salah satu wanita langka dengan pekerjaan seperti mereka. Mereka bersenda gurau, mereka membincangkan apa yang berhasil dan yang tidak, apa yang telah mereka kuasai, apa yang harus diperbaiki. Dan mereka berbicara tentang peran wanita yang lebih ringan saat tak berada di garis depan Operasi Khusus, termasuk Shewee, yaitu alat bantu buang air kecil seperti laki-laki, meskipun dikatakan rasio akurasinya hanya 40%. (Tertawa)
These women lived in the "and." They proved you could be fierce and you could be feminine. You could wear mascara and body armor. You could love CrossFit, and really like cross-stitch. You could love to climb out of helicopters and you could also love to bake cookies. Women live in the and every single day, and these women brought that to this mission as well. On this life and death battlefield they never forgot that being female may have brought them to the front lines, but being a soldier is what would prove themselves there.
Wanita ini hidup dalam dua keadaan. Mereka membuktikan bahwa mereka bisa garang dan bisa feminin juga. Anda bisa saja memakai maskara dan baju zirah Anda bisa saja suka CrossFit, tapi juga menyukai setik silang. Anda bisa saja suka keluar helikopter dan suka juga memanggang kue. Wanita hidup dalam dua keadaan setiap hari, dan para wanita ini membawanya pula ke misi ini. Di medan perang antara hidup dan mati mereka tak pernah lupa sebagai wanitalah yang mungkin membawa mereka ke garis depan, tapi menjadi prajuritlah yang akan membuktikan diri mereka di sana.
There was the night Amber went out on mission, and in talking to the women of the house, realized that there was a barricaded shooter lying in wait for the Afghan and American forces who were waiting to enter the home. Another night it was Tristan who found out that there were pieces that make up explosives all around the house in which they were standing, and that in fact, explosives lay all the way between there and where they were about to head that night. There was the night another one of their teammates proved herself to a decidedly skeptical team of SEALs, when she found the intel item they were looking for wrapped up in a baby's wet diaper. And there was the night that Isabel, another one of their teammates, found the things that they were looking for, and received an Impact Award from the Rangers who said that without her, the things and the people they were looking for that night would never have been found.
Ada suatu malam saat Amber melaksanakan misi, dan saat berbicara pada wanita di rumah itu, ia menyadari ada penembak barikade berbaring menunggu jika ada tentara Afganistan dan Amerika yang akan masuk ke rumah. Di malam lainnya ada Tristan yang mengetahui ada bahan-bahan peledak berserakan di sebuah rumah di mana mereka berada, dan bahkan peledak tergeletak di sana sampai pada tempat tujuan mereka malam itu. Ada malam di mana seorang rekan membuktikan sendiri kepada tim SEAL yang skeptis, ketika ia menemukan barang intelijen yang mereka cari terbungkus dalam popok bayi yang basah. Dan ada malam di mana Isabel, rekan lainnya, menemukan barang yang mereka cari, dan menerima Impact Award dari tim Rangers yang menyatakan bahwa tanpanya, barang itu dan orang-orang yang mereka cari malam itu takkan ditemukan.
That night and so many others, they went out to prove themselves, not only for one another, but for everybody who would come after them. And also for the men alongside whom they served. We talk a lot about how behind every great man is a good woman. And in this case, next to these women stood men who wanted to see them succeed. The Army Ranger who trained them had served 12 deployments. And when they told him that he had to go train girls, he had no idea what to expect. But at the end of eight days with these women in the summer of 2011, he told his fellow Ranger, "We have just witnessed history. These may well be our own Tuskegee Airmen." (Applause)
Malam itu dan banyak malam lainnya, mereka keluar membuktikan diri, tak hanya untuk satu sama lain, tapi untuk semua yang akan mengikuti jejak mereka. Dan juga untuk para pria di samping mereka pada siapa mereka mengabdi. Kami berbicara banyak tentang bagaimana di balik pria hebat ada wanita yang baik. Dan dalam kasus ini, di samping para wanita ini berdiri pria yang ingin melihat mereka berhasil. Resimen Rangers yang melatih mereka telah mengabdi selama 12 kali pengutusan. Dan ketika ia diberitahu bahwa ia harus melatih perempuan, ia tak tahu harus berharap apa. Tapi pada akhir delapan harinya dengan para wanita ini di musim panas 2011, ia berkata kepada prajuritnya, "Kita baru saja menyaksikan sejarah. Mereka juga dapat menjadi bagian Pasukan Udara Tuskegee kita". (Tepuk tangan)
At the heart of this team was the one person who everyone called "the best of us." She was a petite blonde dynamo, who barely reached five-foot-three. And she was this wild mix of Martha Stewart, and what we know as G.I. Jane. She was someone who loved to make dinner for her husband, her Kent State ROTC sweetheart who pushed her to be her best, and to trust herself, and to test every limit she could. She also loved to put 50 pounds of weight on her back and run for miles, and she loved to be a soldier. She was somebody who had a bread maker in her office in Kandahar, and would bake a batch of raisin bread, and then go to the gym and bust out 25 or 30 pull-ups from a dead hang. She was the person who, if you needed an extra pair of boots or a home-cooked dinner, would be on your speed dial. Because she never, ever would talk to you about how good she was, but let her character speak through action. She was famous for taking the hard right over the easy wrong. And she was also famous for walking up to a 15-foot rope, climbing it using only her arms, and then shuffling away and apologizing, because she knew she was supposed to use both her arms and her legs, as the Rangers had trained them. (Laughter)
Di dalam hati tim ini ada satu orang yang dijuluki "yang terbaik dari kami". Ia adalah si tangguh pirang mungil, yang bahkan tingginya tak sampai 160 cm. Dan ia paduan antara Martha Stewart, dan apa yang kita kenal sebagai G.I. Jane. Ia adalah seseorang yang suka memasak makan malam untuk suaminya, kekasih ROTC Kent State-nya yang menggemblengnya menjadi yang terbaik, dan percaya pada dirinya sendiri, dan untuk menguji setiap batas kemampuannya. Ia juga suka membawa bobot 22.7 kg di punggungnya dan lari jauh, dan ia suka menjadi prajurit. Ia adalah orang yang punya pembuat roti di kantornya di Kandahar, memanggang satu loyang roti kismis, lalu pergi ke sasana dan mengangkat diri 25 atau 30 kali di tiang gantungan. Ia orang yang, jika anda butuh sepasang sepatu bot tambahan atau masakan rumahan untuk makan malam, akan ada di tombol cepat anda. Karena ia tak akan pernah bilang pada anda tentang betapa hebatnya dia tapi membiarkan karakter berbicara melalui tindakannya. Ia terkenal memilih yang benar walau berat daripada yang mudah tapi salah. Dan ia juga terkenal dapat naik pada tali sampai 4.5 meter, memanjatnya hanya dengan lengannya, dan kemudian pergi meminta maaf, karena ia tahu seharusnya ia menggunakan kedua tangan dan kakinya, seperti tim Rangers yang telah melatihnya. (tertawa)
Some of our heroes return home to tell their stories. And some of them don't. And on October 22, 2011, First Lieutenant Ashley White was killed alongside two Rangers, Christopher Horns and Kristoffer Domeij. Her death threw this program built for the shadows into a very public spotlight. Because after all, the ban on women in combat was still very much in place. And at her funeral, the head of Army Special Operations came, and gave a public testimony not just to the courage of Ashley White, but to all her team of sisters. "Make no mistake about it," he said, "these women are warriors, and they have written a new chapter in what it means to be a female in the United States Army."
Beberapa pahlawan pulang untuk menuturkan kisah mereka. Dan beberapa tidak. Dan pada 22 Oktober 2011, Letnan Satu Ashley White terbunuh bersama dua Prajurit, Christopher Horns dan Kristoffer Domeij. Kematiannya membuat program yang dibangun untuk menjadi bayangan menjadi paparan publik. Karena biar bagaimana pun juga, larangan wanita untuk bertempur masih sangat ada. Dan di hari pemakamannya, kepala Operasi Khusus Tentara datang dan memberikan testimoni publik tak hanya untuk keberanian Ashley White, tapi juga untuk semua tim saudara perempuannya. "Jangan salah", ia bilang, "Para wanita ini adalah prajurit, dan mereka telah menulis bab baru mengenai apa artinya menjadi wanita di Militer Amerika".
Ashley's mom is a teacher's aide and a school bus driver, who bakes cookies on the side. She doesn't remember much about that overwhelming set of days, in which grief -- enormous grief -- mixed with pride. But she does remember one moment. A stranger with a child in her hand came up to her and she said, "Mrs. White, I brought my daughter here today, because I wanted her to know what a hero was. And I wanted her to know that heroes could be women, too."
Ibu Ashley adalah seorang ajudan guru dan sopir bis sekolah, yang membuat kue sebagai sampingan. Ia tak ingat banyak tentang hari-hari yang membingungkan itu, di mana duka -- duka yang amat dalam -- bercampur dengan kebanggaan. Tapi ia ingat satu momen. Seorang asing yang menggandeng seorang anak datang padanya dan ia bilang, "Nyonya White, aku membawa putriku ke sini hari ini, karena aku ingin ia tahu seperti apa pahlawan itu. Dan aku ingin ia tahu pahlawan itu bisa jadi seorang wanita juga".
It is time to celebrate all the unsung heroines who reach into their guts and find the heart and the grit to keep going and to test every limit. This very unlikely band of sisters bound forever in life and afterward did indeed become part of history, and they paved the way for so many who would come after them, as much as they stood on the shoulders of those who had come before. These women showed that warriors come in all shapes and sizes. And women can be heroes, too. Thank you so much. (Applause)
Inilah saatnya untuk merayakan semua pahlawan yang tak terdengar yang meraih keberaniannya dan menemukan cinta dan keuletan untuk terus berjuang dan menguji setiap batasan. Persaudaran wanita tak lazim ini terikat selamanya di kehidupan dan setelahnya yang sungguh menjadi bagian sejarah, dan mereka membuka jalan bagi wanita yang ingin mengikuti mereka, seperti mereka pun mengikuti jejak pendahulunya. Para wanita ini menunjukkan prajurit ada dalam berbagai bentuk dan ukuran. Dan wanita dapat menjadi pahlawan juga. Terima kasih banyak. (Tepuk tangan)