The Truth About Women in Combat (Cultural Support Team)| Stephanie Rotolo

The Truth About Women in Combat (Cultural Support Team)| Stephanie Rotolo

Author: dee takos June 20, 2026 Duration: 1:47:17
Stephanie Rotolo joins us to talk about her path from Mortuary Affairs and MP work to joining the Cultural Support Team program and deploying to Afghanistan with Special Operations Forces. She breaks down CST selection, working with Afghan female tactical platoons, going out on missions with ODAs, and how those experiences shaped her later work in Civil Affairs across West Africa.
Find Stephanie here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-r-d-rotolo-1b01641a6?trk=public_post_feed-actor-name
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"Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio"
00:00 Start
01:43 Stephanie’s origin story and path to the Army
07:20 Mortuary Affairs and working at Dover
12:53 ROTC, commissioning, and becoming an MP
17:04 MP life in Germany and barracks chaos
25:31 Discovering the Cultural Support Team program
28:14 CST selection and Ranger-led training
33:08 Cultural training and preparing for Afghanistan
38:11 Training Afghanistan’s Female Tactical Platoon
48:00 Operations with ODAs, Rangers, and JSOC
58:00 Coming home, reintegration, and CST program gaps
1:04:36 Smokey the deployment dog
1:12:10 Switching to Civil Affairs and language school
1:15:18 West Africa missions in Senegal and Benin
1:26:30 Naples, the reserves, Altru, and final reflections


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Hosted by Jack Murphy, The Team House is a long-form conversation built around a simple, powerful premise: to understand national security, you need to listen to the people who have been there. This podcast deliberately steps away from the partisan noise, offering a fiercely apolitical space where special operations veterans, intelligence professionals, and frontline reporters can share their experiences and analysis. Many guests here are speaking publicly for the very first time, providing raw, firsthand accounts that you won't find elsewhere. Each episode is a deep dive into the realities of conflict, the nuanced tradecraft of intelligence work, and the underlying geopolitical forces that shape global events. The conversations are detailed, often technical, and always grounded in the lived expertise of the guests. Alongside this main show, the The Team House network includes the sister program Eyes On Geopolitics, hosted by Mick Mulroy, Andy Milburn, and Jason Lyons, which continues the focus on global dynamics with a similarly experienced lens. For listeners seeking substance over soundbites, this podcast delivers complex narratives about modern warfare, espionage, and international relations, told directly by the individuals who have operated within these shadowed worlds. It’s a rare opportunity to hear unfiltered perspectives on the most critical security challenges of our time, making each episode an immersive lesson in the human and strategic dimensions of power.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

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