The Lioness Origin Story Podcast

Mar 07 2024 10 ep. 73 mins 2
The Lioness Origin Story Podcast artwork

Welcome to Lioness Origin Story, a special mini-series podcast presented by the Veterans Breakfast Club. Each week co-hosts Shannon Morgan, Army Lioness Vet, and Daria Sommers, Filmmaker/Writer, present, along with special guests, true stories of women who participated in Team Lioness. The goal is to provide an historical counter to Taylor Sheridan’s fictional Special Ops: Lioness. As the hosts and their guests trace the evolution of Lioness Teams into Female Engagement Teams and Cultural Support Teams, the series will reveal how these new roles led to the dissolution of the Combat Exclusion Policy and the eventual opening up of military roles to women. In 2008 filmmaker and writer Daria Sommers and Meg McLagan released LIONESS, a documentary that revealed the history of a group of women support soldiers who went to Iraq in 2003 as mechanics, clerks and engineers but ended up serving as the original Lioness soldiers. One of those Lioness soldiers was Shannon Morgan. An Army mechanic from Mena, Arkansas who served in Ramadi from 2003-2004. During the 2004 Battle for Ramadi, she was one of a group of Army Lioness soldiers attached to the 2/4 Marines during house to house searches. That put her at the center of some of the fiercest street fighting of the war. But, because the combat exclusion policy, when Shannon returned home, she had to fight to get the full extent of her service recognized and receive the benefits she was entitled to as a combat veteran. Lioness A feature-length documentary by Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers Trailer - https://bit.ly/44GR6fV Available for streaming on Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video Presented by the Veterans Breakfast Club - www.veteransbreakfastclub.org

  History  TV & Film  Education
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Lioness The Origin Story Ep. 12

Mar 07 2024 93 mins  
In celebration of Women’s History Month, this episode features a conversation with three remarkable veterans and leaders who are at the forefront of advocacy for women servicemembers and veterans. (*This program was recorded live on Zoom during a VBC Monday night veteran’s storytelling program.) Retired USAF Colonel Lorry Fenner, Director of Government Relations for the Service

Lioness The Origin Story Ep. 11

Feb 05 2024 87 mins  
In this episode, we visit with two very special guests: retired Army Colonel Kate Guttormsen and Army Colonel Anastasia Breslow-Kynaston. The highest ranking women in the original Team Lioness group (Ramadi 2003-4), both were captains at the time making them the perfect guests for a look back at the Lioness experience. We discuss what it was like to adapt and train-in-theater for t

Lioness The Origin Story Ep. 10

Dec 12 2023 72 mins  
With 28 years of service behind her, Army Colonel Ellen Haring, a West Point graduate, realized she’d hit the brass ceiling. As a woman, she’d been excluded from combat arms specialties, a career requirement to reach the military’s senior ranks. Then, in 2011, she read about The Molly Pitcher project. Led by Professor Anne Coughlin at University of Virginia Law School and her

Lioness The Origin Story Ep. 9

Nov 29 2023 61 mins  
Our guest today is retired USMC Sgt. Major Raquel Painter whose extraordinary nearly 27 year career landed her at some of the most pivotal moments in Marine Corps history. She has the rare distinction of serving as both an FET (Brigade Headquarters Female Engagement Team Leader) during her 2009 deployment to Afghanistan and as a Lioness during her 2007 deployment to Iraq. But worki

Lioness The Origin Story Ep. 8

Oct 28 2023 60 mins  
When former 1st. Lt. Colleen Farrell joined the USMC in 2008, becoming a trailblazer was the furthest thing from her mind. But by the time she left active duty four years later, she'd become part of two historic turning points for women in the military. Starting out all she wanted was to serve her country, an ideal that resonated with her Quaker upbringing. In 2009, she left her MO

Lioness The Origin Story Ep. 7

Sep 27 2023 59 mins  
For retired Army Warrant Officer Raquel Patrick, an impressive four deployments, one to Somalia and three to Iraq, wasn’t enough. The moment she heard about the Cultural Support Team program she knew it was for her. Motivated by a life-long desire to serve, she was confident she could make a difference. Even her children supported her decision to apply. Not only was Raquel select

Lioness The Origin Story Ep. 6

Sep 20 2023 97 mins  
Today, we are honored to have retired US Army Captain Christina Trembley join us and talk about the eight months she spent as a Cultural Support Team member attached to Special Forces’ elite Operational Detachment Alphas in Northern Afghanistan in 2011. Responding to the needs of the local women and children in various villages, Chris spearheaded a partnership with the Afghan Min

Lioness The Origin Story Ep. 5

Aug 24 2023 65 mins  
At this point in the series, Shannon and Daria have the perfect guest to help put in perspective the "hot potato" position women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan found themselves in. Helping us understand the political resistance back home –including Congress’s inability to openly acknowledge what women in the Army and Marines were being asked to do – is retired Navy Captain L

Lioness The Origin Story Ep. 4

Aug 09 2023 64 mins  
With stories and insights from USMC Colonel Maria ‘MJ’ Pallotta and retired USMC Colonel Maria Marte, this episode reveals how the same conditions that led to the creation of the Army’s Team Lioness in 2003 affected the USMC in Afghanistan in 2004. Colonel Marte describes how she and her female Marine ‘searchers’ attached to combat units on missions that took them outside

Lioness The Origin Story Ep. 3

Aug 02 2023 76 mins  
Shannon and Daria talk to retired US Army Colonel David Brinkley who, as Commander of the 1st Engineer Battalion in Ramadi in 2003, created the Team Lioness program. He recalls how the Lioness soldiers’ ability to connect with Iraqi women helped avert conflict and what happened when General Mattis confronted him about sending female soldiers outside the wire in defiance of the Co