SHE CAME TO AMERICA WITHOUT CITIZENSHIP. THE ARMY PUT HER IN A KITCHEN. SHE EARNED HER WAY INTO SEAL RUNNING NIGHT RAIDS IN AFGANISTAN

In 2010, the U.S. Army quietly posted an unusual notice on base bulletin boards: urgent need for female volunteers. No details. No guarantees. Just danger.

Samantha Juan answered.

An immigrant from Bahrain, she’d enlisted before she was even a U.S. citizen and spent years as a cook. After gaining citizenship, she retrained in signals intelligence. But this posting was different. It led to Cultural Support Team (CST) selection at Fort Bragg — a brutal course designed for one purpose: reach Afghan women male soldiers could not.

In 2012, Juan deployed to eastern Afghanistan with SEAL Team 6’s Red Squadron. She ran night raids, entered homes, gathered intelligence, and built trust in minutes — sometimes surrounded by fear, sometimes by children clinging to her legs. She completed 50+ direct-action missions.

When CST shut down, the war followed her home.

She rebuilt through education, art, and trauma advocacy — proving some of the hardest battles begin after combat ends.