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
You know, I had young kids at home and it was, we were still early in the deployment, like getting used to him being gone and, you know, me juggling life at home with young children. And I was finishing up my last semester at grad school and just trying to juggle life. And, and,
When we found out about her, at first I wasn't going to tell the kids because it was such a, it was just like, no, we're not going to get them involved yet. But as I started to pick up momentum and actually look like it could happen, I remember mentioning it to the boys one night and I was tucking them in bed.
And I told him that there was this baby, and that was prior to us seeing the original baby in the box photo. And I said, there's a baby that's been hurt, and daddy's trying to help, see what can happen. So I said, well, let's pray for the baby. And there's a old hymn that's called His Eyes on the Sparrow. And so that's how Sparrow came to be, was we just prayed for baby Sparrow.
And it was just kind of something that we would, when we would pray in the morning or at night, we would pray for baby Sparrow. And so there was a little bit of initial hesitancy involving our family. Sure. And it's still to this day because they're seeing us live this out. I mean, they're in it with us. Oh, I know.
And as a family, we're going through this together and seeing us through the highs and lows of all of it. But at the core, for me at that time, it took my attention off of myself and even kind of a little bit if I had the oh, poor me syndrome. Always does. Yeah. Realizing that there was a real person out there with needs much greater than mine and that we could potentially make a difference.
And so that was, I think, all of a sudden that it had purpose and meaning. And you on that side, you were working at nonstop.
Well, our two main concerns early on was her ongoing medical needs because she did suffer trauma. But also, like Joshua said, just that she would be put back on the X again and she'd be targeted again.
And so what he, what we thought at the time was if we just get the facts in front of the right people, they'll do the right thing. Like that was it. We were, we were very optimistic. And so it was like, they just need to know the truth. And then there's not a question. And so we advocated during that time hard for her because
And, and unfortunately what we come to, what we we've now come to realize is that's not the case. And so it was literally, it is with some, it is with some, but what Joshua said with that, the Colonel testified to is when it came down to where they determined that
and it came out in joshua's board of inquiry is they primarily saw her there was a few key figures that primarily saw her as a like he said an afghan issue an afghan problem or a distraction and fundamentally though there was one female that testified his board of inquiry a service member and she basically she was upset that service members came to care for this child
at the hospital staff in Bagram that they were buying baby supplies with their own money. They were trying to take care of her and make her comfortable and just help a child. What else would you do? That's the question that we've always wondered is why wouldn't you? But they saw it as a distraction, something to be done away with.
And the story, so she has two pseudonyms that it was either Sparrow or we called her Sparrow. They called her Starfish. And there's a poem where there's a boy walking along the ocean and he's bending down, picking up and throwing the starfish back into the ocean. And so the line at the end is an adult comes along and a question's like, how can you possibly make a difference?
The boy bends down and picks up another starfish and throws it into the ocean. He's like, well, it made a difference for that one. And for Starfish, is what they called her, she was a symbol of the one that they could help. Because in a terrible world where they're seeing unspeakable tragedy all the time, she was the unique one that they could help.
And so there was this rally cry around her to protect her and to keep her safe.
At that time when they were told, basically, this is the new course of action and to stand down, what we learned at Joshua's Board of Inquiry is literally one of the generals, he had the entire medical staff footprint at Bagram. He sat them down and said, this is what's going to happen to her. This is the course of action. This is the decision. And this is what we're going to do.
and he ordered everybody. That's what the colonel testified. It was the most unprofessional dress down he's ever been a part of. He basically yelled at everybody and said, this is what we're doing. And so they turned her over with armed, what do you call armed guards? Personal security detail. Personal security detail.
And the reason why the personal security detail, they were there was because they were concerned about a resistance among service members. So if this was family, if this was for her best interest and she was going to be okay, why were they worried about a resistance among young service members? Because ultimately, everybody knew what her outcome was going to be and they knew it was wrong.
That is a miracle. The one thing I'd like to add is the night that, because we scrambled and we literally did everything we could to stop that turnover because all we knew it was to a person that wished to remain anonymous. And we knew that they weren't DNA vetted and that they were likely terrorist affiliated. And so we did everything we could do to stop that from happening.
And I remember, I'll never forget when you came in and you got the call, it was very late at night and he came in and he's like, she's gone. And I, I remember I was just like, I felt like I was kicking the gut and I was just like so devastated because I thought Trump or somebody would come through and save the day and she would not, you know, be turned over like that.
And I was heartbroken at that moment, but I'll never forget you said, and it was, the room was dark and I just remember your voice and you said, I don't know why I have no reason to think this, but it's going to be okay. And I was like, And I was just accepted at that point because I had no words. And I was just like, OK. And so that brings us to how she got out.
Showing 161–180 of 221 · page 9 of 12
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