“What the State Dept is trying to do is connect as many Afghan people as possible with Americans,” said Mussman. “What we hope will come of that is a mutual understanding between the Soldiers and students. We've found that Afghans have a very narrow view of American Soldiers. Not necessarily Americans, just the Soldiers. They may not understand fully what U.S. forces are here to do, and we hope to dissolve the preconceptions the Afghan youth may have about our Soldiers.”
The Soldiers who participated were Staff Sgt. Toya Alexander-Cruz, from The Virgin Islands, TF Bronco brigade chaplain’s asst., and Staff Sgt. Christine Hein, TF Bronco personnel NCO.
Soldiers and students alike said they were eager to learn more about the other. “The girls were happy and excited to speak with us,” said Alexander-Cruz, “and I was excited to speak to them as well.”
Although worlds apart culturally, both Afghan and American girls found common ground, as they got to know each other. Each discovered many of their values were universal, such as the pride of family. “I told them about my son, and they asked to see a photo,” said Cruz. “I held up a photo of my son and they all said ‘Aaawwwww’. They told me he was very handsome and I should be proud of him.”
Despite their similarities, both Afghan and American girls could not avoid the vast differences. “I asked one Afghan girl what she wanted to be upon her graduation from school, and she said ‘a business woman’,” said Cruz. “I then asked how many more of her classmates would like to be business women as well. She said many of her classmates would like to be business women, but some families do not believe in letting women go into business.”
Although many women still experience oppression in Afghanistan, there are many more who have been given the opportunity for an education for the first time in years. The female Soldiers of TF Bronco said they hope their sessions with the Afghan girls provide hope and ideas for a brighter future, which is now possible through education and the raw vigilance of young Afghan women.
“I believe it's vitally important for these women to understand there are women in the world that are just as successful, if not more successful, than men,” said Hein. “I believe we can help to provide some of the tools and framework they may need to succeed, but in the end it is their own decision and deeds which will make the difference.”
Mussman said, “What we hope to do with this program is empower the youth. This is just one of many ways we're hoping to extend diplomacy to the next generation of Afghans. We hope to give the Afghan youth a sense of self and potential, because they are, after all, the future of this nation.”
“We weren’t sure whether we wanted to live together,” Dustin said. “It kind of cuts me out of team cohesion, because when I go home for the day I tend to stay there.” Dustin and Stephanie met while she was a medic for the STB in Fort Hood, Texas. This wasn’t the first time the 2 had been deployed together. "We both deployed with the STB in 2008-2009, but spent the year on different FOBs, only seeing each other twice the entire deployment," Stephanie said.
"Like many things in life, being deployed together has its ups and downs," she said. "For the current deployment to Afghanistan, they rely on extended family to take care of affairs back home," she said. Their house was recently broken into, requiring them to file an insurance claim from Afghanistan, which wasn’t easy. “I miss the peace of mind of having someone at our house watching it,” Dustin said.While deployed, many Soldiers debate how much info to share with folks back home. For Dustin and Stephanie, "there's no protecting the other from knowing how dangerous things are," Stephanie said. “It’s kind of scary, because I know what he does as PSD,” she said. “I’ve been in a line unit before, so I know the kinds of things that happen.”Knowing what could happen can at times be worrisome, and Dustin likes to call her a ‘worrywart,’ Stephanie joked. Living together isn’t all hardship, Dustin admits. Having someone to vent to and talk with after a hard day’s work makes things easier. “It’s nice to be able to talk to somebody and not have to be Sgt. Drewry,” she said. “I can just be Stephanie.”Despite working on the same FOB and living in the same room, the 2 spend only a handful of hours together each day, because they work different hours, Dustin said. He often travels with the command sgt. maj. or bn cmdr. for a week or 2 at a time. When he comes home, "it feels like he’s back in Fort Knox, returning from a field exercise," he said."Getting to see each other on a daily basis has its benefits,” Stephanie said. “We get to share the challenges and accomplishments of the day, which is a blessing a lot of couples don’t have while deployed."