Oral History Of Lt. Adila Jawadi and CPT Rebecca Monaco

title:

Oral History Of Lt. Adila Jawadi and CPT Rebecca Monaco

creator:

Jawadi, Adila (1994 December 1 - || Monaco, Rebecca (1993 June 23 -

subject:

Afghan National Army | KKA | Afghan Female Tactical Platoon (FTP) || Army | Cultural Support Team (CST)

description:

Rebecca Monaco was born on June 23, 1993 in San Diego, California and Adila Jawadi was born on December 1, 1994 in Afghanistan. She joined the Army in 2015 through ROTC at St. John's University. When Adila was a kid, she saw a movie that had a female police officer in it and she immediately wanted to do something like that when she grew up. After going to university for a year, she joined the Army. Rebecca commissioned as active duty intelligence officer and was assigned to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. One of her instructors who was a former Ranger told her about the Cultural Support Team program while she was still a cadet, so she was motivated to join while still in ROTC. She put her application in as soon as she could at Fort Bragg when she heard they were recruiting again. She initially went through the Civil Affairs Assessment pipeline, before going to a more CST-specific evaluation with Rangers. Adila trained for six months in Turkey, and when she graduated from there, she joined the miliary in 2016. She trained in shooting, communication, and strengthening alongside American women. She also went through Female Tactical Platoon training and testing that was even more competitive than other parts of the Afghan Army. By the time Rebecca got to Afghanistan in 2016, the CST program was already pretty well established. The FTP training program was pretty careful in their selection of recruits and US Army members because they didn't want to put Afghan women and the servicepeople at too high of risk. Adila and Rebecca worked together in 2016-17 at Camp Scorpion, which was a combined camp of US Army and the Afghan Forces near Kabul. They were out together again after the evacuation of Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, so Rebecca can provide her support when needed. The FTP training was six months, and then were sent out into one of four or so provinces for 4 or 5 months at a time with a CST. Adila and Rebecca were paired up to go on night missions, searching and questioning women and children at the sites they'd go to. In the field, they'd be dropped at night anywhere from right on the spot to 20k away, then either do a soft or hard knock depending on an expectation of immediate threat, then CSTs and FTPs would search women and children for weapons or documents that may provide intelligence while tactically questioning them to ensure they're at the right site and know who's there. The day that Kabul had been taken by the Taliban, Adila heard about it while out shopping, and banks wouldn't let anyone withdraw any money. They got themselves home as fast as they could, which she could do since she was on sick leave from a disk injury she'd gotten on a mission. They were stuck at home for three days without a plan, and they heard the Taliban were coming through and checking houses. Her brother, the only member of her family with her in Afghanistan at the time, took her military clothes to another house, because if they'd been found Adila would’ve been killed. In 2018 when the Taliban was doing searches in another province, her family fled to Pakistan, and she hasn't seen any of them other than her brother since then. Her brother came with her to the US, and although she is happy that they made it out safely she is incredibly sad for the people and families that have been left there. When they came to the US, they initially went to Wisconsin, then stayed in Kansas City for about seven months, and now they’re' working with Rebecca Monaco and Rebekah Edmonson to settle in Arizona. Adila served in the KKA and Female Tactical Platoon in Afghanistan as part of Operation Freedom Sentinel, was awarded the John McCain Prize for Leadership in Public Service, and sustained a combat/service-related injury. Rebecca was part of JSOC, Task Force 7 Afghanistan CST - Cultural Support Team, sustained a combat/service-related injury, and was awarded Combat Action Badge, Airborne Wings, Joint Commendation Medal with Combat Device, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, NATO Medal, three Army Achievement Medals, two Army Commendation Medals, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and Overseas Service Medal. No transcript of this interview is currently available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Poe, Amy B. | Henn, Jessie

date:

2022-10-07

type:

Moving Image

format:

Born Digital

identifier:

1364; 2022.1364

source:

CST - FTP

language:

English | Dari

relation:

NR

coverage:

2016-2021 || 2015-present || Global War on Terrorism—2001-present | Operation Freedom’s Sentinel (Afghanistan)- 2015-2021

rights:

Unrestricted