Impromptu Job Interview Introduces the Military Community to the Curious Life of Alicia Watkins
For those that haven’t read about this read I recommend going over to the John Q. Public blog and read about the curious case of Air Force veteran Alicia Watkins. She was the woman that for yet to be determined reasons was given media credentials at a Donald Trump event and given the opportunity to ask a question. Trump then invited her to come up on stage and made her a job offer. The whole scene was strange, but when people began digging into Alicia Watkins backstory things got even stranger.
If you take everything she says at face value she is a 9/11 survivor from the Pentagon attack who had a close friend die who she started a charity for. She then deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq where she saw combat action, suicide bombers, was seriously wounded and was awarded the Purple Heart. She was also a military sexual assault survivor, has a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress. She was then medically discharged from the Air Force and proceeded to become a homeless veteran. While homeless she did video diaries that eventually landed her a spot on the Oprah Winfrey show. She then went on to attend Harvard, become a beauty queen, reality television personality and gets the VIP treatment at Super Bowl 50. I probably missed a few things, but that is the best I could do in a paragraph.
So what has been verified about Watkins? As far the media company she claimed to be working for that got her press credentials according to CNN it does not exist. We also know that she was an executive assistant for Major General Durbin at Camp Eggers in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2006. I have seen nothing yet to show she deployed to Iraq. We also know that she is claiming to be at two places at the same time. This 2007 Air Force article has her addressing airmen that had recently returned from an Iraq deployment. Her speech was about how being at Ground Zero during 9/11 motivated her to join the Air Force which is different from her other accounts of being assigned to the Pentagon during the 9/11 attack. The Washington Post was able to confirm that her enlistment date was in 1998 which means that the 9/11 attacks could not have motivated her to enlist.
It is also unclear if she had to be homeless because if she was medically retired she should have been receiving a stipend and disability each month. As far as attending Harvard this was a stretching of the truth because she enrolled in the Harvard Extension School which is an online offering of courses which anyone can sign up for. There has yet to be any evidence that she was actually hit by any IED or seen any combat action. I also could not find any evidence of the charity she supposedly started for her friend killed during the Pentagon attack.
Really a DD214 would pretty much clear a lot of this up because it would show whether she has a Purple Heart or not. It would also show her assignments to see if she was actually assigned to the Pentagon on 9/11. It would also show her deployment history. There are already a lot of holes in this story, but hopefully the Stolen Valor folks can get a copy of her DD214 to put the remaining questions to rest.
Certainly, you are not questioning her story…
…that would be racist AND sexist.
I, myself, am finding increasing success in life as I deal with any conflict by loudly and repeatedly proclaiming accusations of racism until there is a stunned silence, at which point I claim victory.
If a white male was spewing this nonsense, everyone would be all over the truth within minutes. As a black female, everyone rationalizes the obvious lies to support a wishful narrative that really does not, and cannot, exist.
Then important decisions are made that affect all of society based on this false parallel reality.
@chickenhead, the media did jump on her pretty quick because of how she got press credentials and favorable treatment by Trump. Both the Washington Post and Fox News have questioned her background. However, no one has been able to completely disprove her background until a DD214 is produced which can be done through a Freedom of Information Act request which takes time. By then the news cycle will have moved on leaving this story to bloggers to follow up on.
The Stolen Valor folks are on this now. Here is the message they left on Facebook:
There have been people accused of stolen valor in the past that proved after their documents were checked to be legit. All we know right now is that she lied about being at New York when 9/11 happened and exaggerated being admitted to Harvard. The DD214 will answer most of the other questions. If I was Ms. Watkins I would scan a copy of it and put it on my Facebook account if someone was questioning my service history.
Consider how everything written on her trips over itself trying to give the benefit of the doubt… making a big show of requiring the highest standards of proof… when she is clearly full of shyt.
Compare this with the clumsy rush to attack George Bush with obviously forged documents which ended Dan Rather’s career.
Don’t get me wrong… I am in full agreement with a methodical fact-based exposure of lies and wrong-doing of public figures… so the investigation into her is being done correctly…
…but my original idea remains valid. A white male spewing the same nonsense would have been quickly condemned with circumstantial evidence simply by demonstrating every point at which his story was impossible before any external evidence was introduced.
@Chickenhead, I would say trying to compare her to George Bush is a stretch considering the political implications of tearing down a sitting President compared to tearing down a Trump sideshow. If she was someone who the media could tear down Trump with they would probably be more of a feeding frenzy. As it is she is just a sideshow and this is why there will probably not be any follow up from the media on her.
Hmmm… after watching how the world operates, I find it hard to believe race and gender play no roll in the rather cautious approach everyone is taking in exposing her.
Do we need a list of white male quickdraw media victims from Arbuckle to Zimmermam in which wild speculation filled the pages and complete misinformation was clearly manufactured… and another list of minority women in which the media has ignored obvious lies and bad behavior… sometimes, as in this case, with the excuse of being cautious about the facts.
As we further determine the Hierarchy of Media Darlings, we learn protecting a narrative of black female achievement and Oprah’s credibility is more important than damaging Trump.
@Chickenhead, good point about Zimmerman, the big media destroyed him at first with little to no evidence. However, destroying him early on was intended to ignite racial tensions which the big media enjoys doing to increase page views and viewership which means more money for them. That is why every cop shooting involving a black man is sensationalized while cop shootings involving whites is largely ignored.
Spending an a large amount of time digging up information on Watkins will not lead to increased viewership or page views for the big media. Plus it could have the side affect as you pointed out of taking on Oprah which is something not to be taken lightly. So it is easier for them to look for the next police shooting to hype and leaves this one to bloggers to follow up on.
The reason the big media did the original articles on her is probably because they were pissed she was a nobody who got press credentials and preferential treatment by Trump over them.
@Chickenhead, to further expand on the media topic the NY Times published this recently about how the big media helped build up Trump in the name of ratings. It now appears the media along with the Republicans are looking for any way they can find to tear him down. If there was any chance of Watkins being used tear Trump down I think the media would have a feeding frenzy no matter what color her skin is.
@7, ” If there was any chance of Watkins being used tear Trump down I think the media would have a feeding frenzy no matter what color her skin is.”
You mean like they did or tried to do — often with with GOP Establishment help — for Clarence Thomas, Allen West, Ben Carson, Alan Keyes, Herman Cain, Mia Love, Condoleezza Rice, Star Parker… et cetera ad nauseum…
In the Hierarchy of Media Darlings, blacks are equal to whites only if they are conservatives.
Generally, blacks are only allowed to be championed as victims… not as self-starting overachievers.
@setnaffa, great examples of when race did not matter to the big media types to start a feeding frenzy to push an agenda to take someone out.
Here is another statement I came across from Watkins that I found strange from a 2011 CNN interview:
How is someone on active duty and not getting paid for seven to eight months that drives them to homelessness? If true her unit had the worst personnel section and leadership in the Air Force.
Honestly… is there ANY situation that an active duty airman can be homeless and not paid for 7 or 8 months?
…or at least one where the blame doesn’t fall 100% on the lazy, crazy, or AWOL airman?
Is there any possibility that she “never was going to use my back or walk or anything else again” yet was getting around just fine on the streets?
There does not need to be any DD214 or heap of external evidence to disprove this woman’s story… she clearly disproves it every time she opens her mouth… yet everyone dances around pointing out the clear impossibilities and chains of improbabilities while claiming to need “proof” and “evidence”… and rationalize that, while some parts of her story are clear lies, maybe other parts are true.
WTF is wrong with people?
Call this biitch out and make her prove her highly-improbable story with 5 minutes of gathering paperwork and posting it on the internet.
In the Oprah video Alicia said she served 10 years. At :18, in response to Oprah’s question about pay, Alicia said to Oprah, ” I was getting $700 retirement pay, but then because I had some debts since the war, that gets taken out”. (which led her to become homeless. Says she also gave up her room at a shelter to a mother with kids, and she then lived in a car, etc.)
Even if anything of what she says is false, technically it might not be her fault…..
“I have traumatic brain injury, I have post-traumatic stress disorder, I have a spinal cord injury,” she says. “It’s a hard road. I would love to be able to work today. I have offers, I have people that are willing to help me, but they all have to take a backseat to my health. As much as I want to work, I have to acknowledge that I am a casualty of war.”
She could just blame it on traumatic brain injury. 🙂 😛
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/25/alicia-watkins-homeless-veteran-harvard_n_6933380.html