Air Force Personnel Records Show that Alicia Watkins Lied About Her Background
Alicia Watkins who has more than received her 15 minutes of fame over the past few years claiming to be a wounded warrior from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. However, she has now been officially outed as having lied about her background. The Air Force Times was able to get a copy of her DD-214 that shows she was not a recipient of the Purple Heart and never deployed to Iraq:
Official military records contradict several claims made by an Air Force veteran whose story of surviving the 9/11 terror attacks and battling severe combat injuries gained her access to prestigious events and captivated celebrities, most recently Republican presidential front runner Donald Trump.
Alicia Watkins, who retired from the Air Force in 2008 for undisclosed medical reasons, has since appeared on multiple mainstream news and TV programs, including “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and the TLC reality series “Say Yes to the Dress,” to discuss her struggles after sustaining a career-ending back injury from an improvised explosive attack in Afghanistan. However, there is nothing in the list of awards and decorations contained in Watkins’ military personnel file indicating she was ever involved in an enemy attack. A spokesman for the Air Force Personnel Center in San Antonio, Texas, Mike Dickerson, provided Air Force Times with Watkins’ decorations, awards and deployments, as noted on her DD-214 discharge form. [Air Force Times]
I recommend reading the entire article at the link, but the Air Force Times piece has still left some questions unanswered. For example she was assigned to the Pentagon during the timeframe of the 9/11 attack. However, was she there the day the attack happened like she claims? The fact she was not awarded a Purple Heart directly contradicts the claim she has made that she was injured during the attack. This also proves she was not wounded by an IED in Afghanistan as well. The other part of her narrative that has yet to be resolved is if she really knew the Army soldier who died during the 9/11 attack that she supposedly started a charity for.
Then her personnel records show she was only awarded 8 awards, but she has been seen wearing 19 awards to include the Purple Heart. Then there is the fact that she was not awarded an Afghanistan Campaign Medal. The Air Force Times says she deployed to Afghanistan, but if she did not receive the campaign medal that means she was not in theater long enough to receive it. Personnel receive the medal after 30 consecutive days in theater or 60 non-consecutive. So she may not have even been in Afghanistan longer than 30 days. I am also amazed that after nearly 10 years in the Air Force she did not receive an Air Force Achievement Medal. This really makes me wonder about her performance if as an E-5 she did not receive at least an achievement medal.
Anyway this should close the book on her, but I am sure she will defend herself by saying the Air Force screwed up her records like many other people caught inflating their service tend to do. It will be interesting to see if any legal action is pursued because she has profited from her wartime injury claims which is against the law.
You can read more about the DD-214 findings over at Guardians of Valor as well as John Q. Public.
Please forgive me for mentioning the obvious that Oprah’s show is just like those Geraldo specials. Nothing of value in Al Capone’s basement. Nothing of value in the Andrea Doria’s safe. Nothing of value in Alicia Watkins autobiography.
She shamed herself, the Air Force, and actual combat veterans.
Is Trump cut of the same cloth?
Let me get my fainting goats!
There are a whole bunch of white males missing enough of their bodies that nobody needs to see a DD-214 to verify their story… and if asked, they will quickly present it… as well as give quick and detailed coherent answers to any question they are asked about people, places, times, or things.
In fact, it is generally easy to spot the bullshytters within minutes as they talk in inconsistent generalities… pretty much exactly like this slag did.
Amyway… do these guys get invited to events AND Oprah AND reality TV? Rarely? Never?
Wrong sex? Wrong color? What’s the deal?
Certainly anyone who has been in the military could determine if this slag was on the level within 15 minutes of conversation… and declined tarnishing themselves or their organization by playing into her bullshyt.
Is everyone so stupid… or is everyone so desperate to find some support, even a single example, for an imaginary narrative that really DOES NOT EXIST no matter how badly everyone wishes it did.
This whole thing is racist, sexist, discriminatory, dishonorable, and a demonstration of the stupidity and foolishness of everybody from Oprah to Trump to the Air Force who conspired to keep the myth going by watching this slag’s unlikely rise to fame without spending a few minutes to check her history and making a public statement of support or denial.
If fact, this slag is a self-promoting player with no small dose of the craycray… Oprah and Trump bought into the self-reinforcing hype… the media was scared to demonstrate common sense in evaluating her story and was hesitant to take the small steps to verify it…
..and the Air Force was the biggest pile of shyt in this whole story for making absolutely no effort to get off their azzes and shut her down while she soaked up attention and resources that should have been going to truly deserving airmen (and soldiers/marines).
The whole thing is a shyt sandwich… and everybody at every level must have suspected from the beginning.
Shameful.
“..and the Air Force was the biggest pile of shyt in this whole story for making absolutely no effort to get off their azzes and shut her down while she soaked up attention and resources that should have been going to truly deserving airmen (and soldiers/marines).”
There are no offices in the non-Veterans Affairs military funded for, or required to follow up on the activities of people after they leave the military. The military is only tasked to keep and provide their records upon request.
Let me add this:
I occasionally play XCOM Enemy Within on Steam. Today’s mission was called “Operation Blinding Crone”.
Seemed to fit the election cycle. 😡 😥 😯 🙁
Everydog has her day, some get a bone.
JoeC, your point is well-taken.
…yet I find it hard to believe the Air Force was repeatedly accused in popular media of allowing an injured active duty airman to become homeless through neglect and non-payment yet had no comment on the matter.
I have to agree with Chickenhead that the AF bares some responsibility by giving her guest speaker roles while on active duty without vetting her story. Then after she left you would think that the AF would try and defend itself from the claims she was making saying they were not paying her and that led to her being homeless.
With that all said the vast majority of the blame falls on her for all the lies in the first place.
GI, did anyone check to see if Brian Williams backed up her story?
“With that all said the vast majority of the blame falls on her for all the lies in the first place.”
Yes… but her obvious lies were PROMOTED at every level. She is just a shytbag. Everyone else is a bigger shytbag for being an accomplice.
This active promotion puts a gread deal of blame on the promoters… as without them, she would have been as harmless as a bigfoot witness.
Again… everyone, including the Air Force, were either afraid to shut down a black woman or using her to promote a narrative that does not exist… both harmful to society.
That behavior should be exposed… and blamed.
Apparently the USAF discharged the cray-cray and also kept her out of combat zones where she would have done the most damage. I’m not sure what her function was as a guest speaker back in 2008 when she served, or if she even actually served as a guest speaker for the USAF.
After claiming to be a sexual assault victim, she’s pretty much guaranteed whistle blower protection status, thanks to Barbara Boxer and Gillibrand. Any objections/ criticisms are just targeted “victim blaming” regardless of veracity.
I guess someone could have intervened (I’m sure lots of people knew her back in the day) but it would have been a career ending action. It’s one thing to die with one’s boots on for good reason but another to fall on one’s sword for no good reason.
Is this worthless person a good enough reason for anyone to sacrifice oneself over, especially when it’s obvious the truth would come out sooner or later?
A few months back I saw a woman on the cover of Citizen Airman who almost as much of a fraud as this woman, and everyone she has ever worked for knows it. This problem is widespread.
I see it as much a part of Barry’s Legacy as Benghazi is and Iranian nukes will be…
@Liz, here is the Air Force article about her being a guest speaker talking about her 9/11 experience. Here is a picture of her speaking:
She was also guest 9/11 memorial speaker while stationed at Kabul in 2006. Here is another picture:
You would think someone working around her would have looked into the veracity of her claims.
@setnaffa, I don’t see how Alicia Watkins has anything to do with President Obama unless I am missing something?
In defense of Setnaffa, Obama is not to blame directly for this… but he is to blame.
From “his son” Trayvon to his frequent White House guest Al Sharpton, Obama has promoted and enabled racial divisiveness and a Magic Negro narrative that insures knee-jerk public condemnation and career termination for anyone spoiling, or even questioning, situations like this.
Instead of being a uniter by leading the black community out of bad cultural habits, Obama has defended and empowered those who profit from conflict and maintain power through ensuring the status quo.
Instead of fostering an environment where accomplished blacks are empowered and publicized (there must be some), obvious frauds are allowed to claim obvious mystical experiences… protected by the race-dividers Obama has empowered.
So. Yes. Obama has some blame here.
Thank you CH for stating my position so eloquently. The buck stops at the President’s desk. Whether he admits it or not. It could be his fault, someone else’s fault, or nobody’s fault; but it happened on his watch. Just like Bush was ultimately responsible for the Abu Ghraib incident.
The Armed Forces under Barry have become a lot less than they were, a lot less than “All you can be!”
Some have said that you can’t bullshyt a bullshytter… but this shows us something.
or, you could take the view that the bullshytters were NOT bullshytted and played along with the bullshyt knowingly anyway.
Either way, it looks like she outta be a prime candidate to have the book thrown at her for stolen valor and fraud.
It seems to me that Stolen Valor has had equal opportunity offenders. For example the infamous LTC Green case at Ft. Benning showed how this guy got away with wearing unearned awards and tabs with no one questioning him for many years and he was white:
It’s a sad commentary that liars are often rewarded and the real heroes are often assaulted by the Rear Echelon… 😡
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/08/20/army-kicking-out-decorated-green-beret-who-stood-up-for-afghan-rape-victim.html And a couple hundred more links like that… 😡 😡 😡
Come on, GI, stop teasing us.
Lt. Col. Green had three real war-zone deployments and a Bronze Star Medal… as opposed to an entire backstory that was obviously bullshyt and should have drawn immediate attention from anyone who ever served.
As soon as Green got to a position where people start looking closely (such as head of the Warrior Training Center or (in theory) Oprah appearances) his unearned ranger and sapper tabs were noticed, accused, investigated, acted upon, and fully resolved within 3 months… firing him a full month before the official investigation was even concluded.
While not commenting much about specifics, Ft. Benning even publicly released his authorized decoration so the media could compare it to published photographs and draw their own conclusions.
On the other hand, the Air Force helped perpetuate Alica Watkins’ story through their silence… while she continuously made false and damaging accusations on a very public stage.
If you were trying to prove the opposite of your point, you picked a fine example.
@Chickenhead, Watkins was not on active duty when she went on Oprah so there would not have been any PAO officer assigned to her. If she went on Oprah while on active duty there would have likely been more vetting of her story to make sure it is accurate. If Green exited the Army and then put on the extra tabs and awards and went on Oprah as well for some reason like Watkins did, it is likely no one would have questioned him either as evident by how long he got away with wearing the unearned tabs and awards while on active duty.
Hmmm. I understand the difference…
…but I still find it hard to believe someone went on national TV… on Oprah… that many Air Force wives lap up like a cat on milk… and told a story too fantastic to be true… and said impossibly bad things about the Air Force… and NOBODY bothered to say anything against it?
Is the Air Force and everybody in it that feeble?
…because if that is the case, I think I can monitize this lack of self-awareness
LTC Green has an Armored Unit affiliation on his right pocket! That is treason! He must be blown and quartered!
Tankers don’t turn blue! They are born yellow!