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#Team #Lioness / 🦁 came after female #Delta #operations in the 90s ⸻

🦁 Team Lioness (U.S. Military – Iraq / Afghanistan)

Overview & Purpose

•	“Team Lioness” was an informal name for female U.S. service members (Marines, Army support staff) attached to combat units in Iraq and Afghanistan during the early 2000s.  

•	Their primary role: searching local women during raids, checkpoint operations, and other missions where male troops could not legally or culturally search women in conservative contexts.  

•	They also acted as liaisons / communicators, interacting with women in local communities to gather intelligence, build trust, and ease friction in counterinsurgency environments.  

Historical & Operational Context

•	Because of the U.S. Combat Exclusion Policy, women were not officially allowed to be assigned to ground combat units (this was lifted in 2013). Thus, women on Lioness teams were “attached” rather than formally part of infantry units.  ** notes 📝 below ⬇️ 

•	Lioness operations often had two roles per team: a searcher (who physically searched women) and a guardian / protector who covered or secured the searcher.  

•	Some reports estimate that in certain missions, Lioness teams searched 90–100 women per day.  

•	The program was never intended as a long-term, large-scale solution; over time, local women (e.g. Iraqi women) were recruited to perform or supplement those roles (e.g. #Sisters of #Fallujah )so that parts of the task become more locally led.  

•	The concept of Female Engagement Teams (FETs) developed later, and they built on the example set by Team Lioness.  ( #FETs reduce many aspects) 

Media, Legacy, Recognition • “Lioness” (2008 film): A documentary about some of the first women in Team Lioness, showing their journey from support roles to active combat involvement. 

•	Many Lioness veterans later struggled for recognition: because their service was “attached” rather than formally recognized as combat, disability claims, benefits, and official acknowledgment were sometimes denied or delayed.  

‼️🚨⏰ : this also happened with male veterans that were attached to units as well. They didn’t receive their combat infantry badges either. ‼️🚨⏰

•	The stories of Team Lioness contributed to debates about gender integration in the U.S. military and helped push policy change (eventual lifting of combat restrictions for women).  

⸻

🐾 Team Lioness (Kenya – Wildlife Rangers)

Overview & Purpose • Team Lioness in Kenya is one of the first all-women ranger units in the country, based near Amboseli National Park, formed around 2019.  • The unit is part of the Olgului Community Wildlife Rangers (OCWR), which protects community lands adjoining Amboseli Park. 

Selection & Role • Rangers are selected on criteria like leadership, academic achievement, integrity, and physical fitness.  • They patrol for wildlife crimes, deter poaching, respond to bushfires, and help mediate human-wildlife conflict (e.g. lions attacking livestock).  • Their deep knowledge of local communities and lands gives them an advantage in detecting threats or suspicious activity. 

Impact & Community Engagement • In 2020, they intercepted a poacher who had killed a juvenile giraffe, reported to Kenya Wildlife Service for arrest.  • Their outreach includes presenting conservation education in local schools, forming wildlife clubs, and teaching coexistence strategies to communities.  • The Team Lioness unit has grown from its original 8 rangers to about 17, contributing significantly to both conservation and women’s empowerment in Maasai communities.  ⸻

🕵️ Claims & Reporting

•	We Are The Mighty claims that Delta Force (1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, “The Unit”) “has a history of hiring female soldiers to serve alongside male operators,” beginning in the 1990s.  

#G BEACH

•	OutKick published an article that photos of women in Delta have been cleared for release and that there are women in Delta — though it cautions they might not be “operators.”  
•	That same OutKick article notes that the official Army website once posted an article acknowledging female Delta members, complete with photos, which was later removed.  

‼️🚨⏰/ probably cause some females didn’t want a target on their head by sexist extremists ‼️🚨⏰

•	Some Reddit threads (less authoritative) claim that female members were attached to Delta’s G Squadron in recon or support roles from the 1990s.  

Fax 📠 ⸻

📚 Historical / Institutional Barriers • The Combat Exclusion Policy prevented women from being formally in infantry or direct ground combat roles until it was officially lifted in 2013.  • Because of that policy, any involvement of women with Delta before 2013 would have had to be in support or attached roles, not as formally assigned ground operators.

•	This limitation means that most claims of women “in Delta” in the 1990s are about attached capability roles (intelligence, reconnaissance, liaison) rather than operator status.

⸻

✅ What Can Be Reliably Stated • There is credible reporting that women have been affiliated with Delta units in modern times, possibly dating back decades, often in support or reconnaissance capacities.

•	There is no confirmation in publicly declassified records that a woman was a fully qualified Delta operator (i.e. went through the full operator selection and assignment in the 1990s).

‼️⏰🚨: well that’s true. Some women weren’t pulled and sent to school. We were pulled and used and trained boots on ground in the 90s.

•	Because of classification and secrecy around Delta, many of these details remain concealed or ambiguous.

‼️🚨⏰: luckily 🍀 some well known special operations commanders are speaking about the importance of women in SOC now. Again, my thanks 🙏 Always forward. 🫡🖖

So again: don’t try to make a #warzone of the #USA and #world and expect #veterans to stay quiet.