Stephanie Mast
speaker
221 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard Feb 2025
last heard Feb 2025
Stephanie Mast’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
And I've always wondered what would happen to her to the point where they hope that she would have died because they knew that her life, like she was just destined to a miserable life.
To an extent, we've heard that. And then the other thing, like I said with the woman that testified at the board, they didn't like that service members were getting attached or that they were caring enough about this. Like, that's not the mission. This is a distraction. Do away with it. Like, literally, it was like it, the problem, the issue. It was just— Afghan problem.
Yeah, it was just very wipe our hands, wipe our hands of it and walk away.
And leading up to that, like Joshua says, naively, like at the beginning, you thought that just got to get the facts in front of the right people and they'll make the right decision. And so that was, you know, your motive was just get the facts in front of the decision makers and they will see it and you'd act on her best interest.
And we were scrambling up to the very end to trying to get a hold of Trump. Did anyone, any decision maker trying to just show the truth?
There were literally people running around banks trying to find him.
It wasn't a matter of if, it was when. Because as we had mentioned before, DOD policy all the way up to that point was make every effort to bring her home. And so we were, like for me, just like you would prepare for any other child, just being ready to have all the supplies, be ready to go. to, for us, receive a child that potentially had ongoing medical needs.
So just trying to adjust my expectations of what life was going to look like at that time. And I would say for the most part, we were ready as much as you could be. But when it looked like they were going to forcefully just turn her over, at the last minute, I think we still, as Americans, just held out hope, like, if we get it in front of the right people, they'll do the right thing.
And so I think even though that fear was very real, there was a side that was just like, it's going to come through. It's got to come through. It's a baby. They're going to see the innocence, and they're going to protect this baby.
And I remember that night, it was like one of the worst nights of my life that it was, I don't know what time it was, but I was in bed and like we did everything we could possibly do. And now we were just hoping that for some reason it was going to stop. It was going to be stopped. And Joshua walked in and the room was dark and I just remember your voice and you're like, she's gone.
I just, I didn't even say anything. I was so shocked. I was just, it felt like a kick in the gut. Like, I can't believe it. And that moment just, if you feel like a failure, because here you are, I mean, we were excited about what we were doing. We were proud of what we were doing. And there was like a full court press of everybody working together for this one child.
And so it felt just like a failure. And I'll never forget what you said. You said, I don't know why. I have no reason to think this, but it's going to be okay. And of all things for him to say, it was probably the best thing. It was comforting. But I was just like, really? I can't see how any good can come from this.
After formally recognizing... Or if you want to say a little bit more politically, they ignored our legal parental rights and basically said, yeah, that's you, but we're going to do this. It was official U.S. determination and policy.
And we're told that she's in a slum.
And her as a two-year-old... The sensitive way to say it is she was exhibitive. She was demonstrating signs of trauma. The girl, the baby at Bagram... was no longer there. Like that was the bright eyes, big smile, just open face, typical baby. When we finally saw her after that 18 month span, she was closed off.
It was to the point where I, for a split second, I wondered if it was the same child because she was so distinctly different. Her eyes were guarded, her face was closed off. She was like very defensive. And it wasn't until I saw the scar on her leg, which is very distinct. I was like, that's her.
I was kind of looking at her face, just looking for those glimpses from all the photos from the hospital, like looking for that little girl. And to say that she was traumatized, it would be an understatement.
It was an incredible part. And it was chaotic. That wasn't the plan. It was just the plan evolved as all of this was happening. And I took some pictures along the way, which I think I've shared. Because for me, I'm a photographer by trade, but it felt like what Joshua was doing and the stories, I was just overhearing of everything that was transpiring. It was just so significant.
It was almost historical. And so I took—for whatever reason, we were driving up to Baltimore to fly out to Ramstein, Germany. And Josh was on the phone, and he was trying to get a group of 14, I think, that had— visas to Australia as he was on the phone with someone on the ground in Kabul. And I just had this urge.
I mean, probably not the best idea driving, but I just picked up my phone and I just hit record. And I started recording him on this phone call because it's just significant. It's not every day that you're speaking to people directly on the ground while all this is going on. And it ended up being the Marine that died, I think, the very next day at Abbey Gate.
Showing 81–100 of 221 · page 5 of 12
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