Welcome to Episode 90 of The Afghanistan Project, where we cover all topics related to two decades of war in Afghanistan, and the fallout of our Afghanistan withdrawal.
Today, my guest is Lori Butierries. Lori is a full-time caregiver to two children with disabilities. She uses her life experiences and the medical knowledge she gained from serving as a Hospital Corpsman in the United States Navy to help others facing similar hardships.
Lori has written for The Havok Journal, AwareNow Magazine, and The Mighty. Likewise, other news sites like MSN and Yahoo! News have also republished select articles Lori has written.
Lori's writing extends to children's literature. Her debut picture book, GIFT FROM GOD, was self-published at the beginning of 2021 and placed as a finalist in two categories in the 2021 Next Generation Indie Book Awards.
Lori's long-term goals are to use her writing to educate others about, advocate for, and dismantle negative stereotypes regarding disability, mental health, and the military/veterans community.
Lori and I discuss how she was voluntold to take part in early efforts to acknowledge cultural sensitivities in Afghanistan by sending female searchers to look for intelligence, weapons, or ammo hidden on Afghan women while infantry units searched Afghan men and dealt with enemy forces.
We talk about the nature of her workup period, dealing with menstruation in the field, being embedded within infantry units despite having limited understanding of how to react to combat situations, and how Lori transitioned into advocacy for Afghan women after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
About Lori Butierries:
Follow Lori on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/lori_butierries/
Follow Lori on Twitter here: https://x.com/LButierries
Find Lori’s book, Gift of God, here: https://www.amazon.com/GIFT-GOD-Lori-Butierries/dp/0578838362/
About the host:
Beth Bailey worked in support of Afghanistan operations as a civilian intelligence analyst for the Department of the Army between 2010 and 2013. She is a freelance contributor to Fox News Digital and the Washington Examiner.
Follow Beth:
on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bwbailey85/
on Twitter: https://x.com/BWBailey85
on Substack: https://substack.com/@bwbailey85
on the web: https://bethwbailey.com/
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