Female Hurlburt commander recounts how she got the nickname ‘Angel of Death’ during mission

let's talk about your nickname I said hey I'm going to interview the angel of death I don't know if she likes that or doesn't like that but it's certainly catchy yes ma'am you don't really lose that at any point during your career for years I did not like to talk about it believe it or not um because I I prefer to talk about others than myself and I felt like I was just part of a team and I was in this case and I'll unpack the story for you in this case I was being called out for being different and I was working so hard to just be good at what I did no matter my gender uh and gender plays into this but over time and I talk to you about being personally and professionally confident um I realized that that story has had so many unintended second order second and third order effects unintended consequences for the positive so I'll replay it for you I so two it's 2001 and this is my first combat Mission so we flew from Herbert field so we launched from here we landed in usbekistan and Kian about USC an and that we were given about 12 hours is what they need to give uh air crew for rest we were called back into ATT tent and given a call sign a free a radio frequency and a grid a location of the American forces uh and that was it that was our mission planning uh we pulled Maps out of boxes we charted a a course from usbekistan to Afghanistan border and then our my job on on the ac130 as the Navigator is of course to get our our planes from point A to point B but we do all the Tactical communication so my job is to we find the friendly forces and then we get a situation report so on the radio I began talking to Oda 595 uh which AKA The Horse Soldiers so they were aligned with the Northern Alliance they were actually just in town last weekend at a uh remembrance a 911 Remembrance in Okaloosa County at the fairgrounds the Fort Walton Beach Fairgrounds so we just celebrated that so I uh I made contact with them on the radio and got a situation report and we were told to look for any armor or any enemy personnel and at that time in Afghanistan it was dark nobody was out at at night um every the power was off around the country so it was pretty easy to see any activity and when uh we found some Personnel we found some armor we were we were cleared to engage that armor and we did as we were continuing to scan the city again my job is relaying what we're seeing through our sensors cuz then they didn't have the ability to see what we see so it had to be a play byplay a clear depiction of what we were seeing on the ground uh we found a vehicle headed towards the friendly location so if our job is to protect them uh we they had cleared us to engage that vehicle just prior to the engagement that vehicle pulled into a compound and that compound had more vehicles and many adult males walking around a small building and they came back over the radio and they said you're those are confirmed Taliban you're cleared hot so my first combat Mission I was a lieutenant I had not been to combat before and on that crew we had the young I would say I was the young and we had the more senior the gentleman to my left was a a lieutenant colonel in' 05 who'd served many years uh we had a senior aircraft Commander we had a young co-pilot so we were already growing the next balanced with the experience so uh they they cleared us to shoot and we shot 400 rounds of 40 uh millimeter and and uh 100 rounds of 105 mm that night eliminating hundreds of enemy Personnel what we didn't know is when we started to engage that compound they that was a meeting house and they were inside that building and as the vehicles caught on fire they began pouring out and we were able to eliminate uh the enemy so you asked about the angel of death uh while I'm communicating with the team General do who's an Afghan warlord who we aligned with uh could hear me on the radio and he looked at our teammates our army special forces's teammates and said is that is that a woman and they said yes as a matter of fact it is and he laughed he couldn't believe it and he got on his walkie-talkie and he called the enemy that we were shooting cuz they're all linked in some way and in so many words I'm paraphrasing American women are so determined to kill Taliban uh they put them on their air planes or let me replay that uh he said America is so determined to kill Taliban they put their women on warplanes and as I'm communicating giving the situation reports doing my job he Keys the mic so the enemy Personnel can hear my voice at the same time we were using what we call an isid which is a high powerered laser pointer on the airplane it's and you can see it under night vision goggles so we're using that internal deconfliction of where the enemy are mov moving and general dosam sees the same thing and he says is that is that a death ray and our teammates looked at each other and said as a matter of fact it is so he they believe that America had a laser uh that could point to the ground and and blow things up which wasn't the case back then uh so he got on his walkie-talkie again General doam and said uh you are so pathetic American women are killing you the angel of death is reigning death and destru ction and allow them to hear my voice uh you must surrender now which that next morning I I don't know how many but hundreds of them surrendered themselves to General doam so that story of my voice and and we we were he was using it as a disgrace mechanism gave me a sense of Pride and I we did not know that was happening at the time so two weeks later the team the Oda team operational Detachment Alpha comes back up to iscan and tells us this story uh and hands me an AK-47 from the Northern Alliance because what we were able to do that night as a crew was a very decisive change in the war in Afghanistan very early on that weapon is hung at the 16 Special Operations Squadron the Squadron that was part of those missions uh today as a part of our history the story gets better so that was once you know Pok to the chest to the enemy uh what general doam did uh a general a warlord essentially who did not believe probably most of his life that women should be in school that they should have jobs he took the story of America allowing their women to fly on airplanes to a burka unveiling ceremony it was in a village with young women and he and he told that story of our support and what we were able to do and and reminded them that if they were to they would they would continue to fight against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda uh that they would have those freedoms one day uh so to make an impact on a warlord uh uh for the things that we just get to do here was pretty uh darn impactful next phase of this story I ran I was I had the uh the privilege to meet General dost's son years later I think it was about 2011 in New York at the horse Soldier Memorial that's placed at Ground Zero in Manhattan and his dad had told him the stories of American women flying on airplanes I met Afghan women over the years that had heard some portion of that story and how that gave them hope and inspired them so I went from just wanting to do my job not wanting to be recognized to of uh for being any different specifically as a woman uh and embracing it and knowing that if I can share my little piece of the story and that inspires one person uh we're winning I just never looked at myself as as an inspiration I just looked at myself as I'm doing my job I'm answering my calling my calling from higher

Channel: WEAR Channel 3 News

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Id: 0AbOnkMjZ3o

Length: 8min 6sec (486 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 08 2023