War story told by former sailor disputed

[leobold1]

War story told by former sailor disputed - Military News, Marine Corps News, opinions, editorials, news from Iraq, photos, reports - Marine Corps Times

Deployment to Iraq not in personnel record; paper issues correction
By Robert Hodierne - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Mar 25, 2007 1228 EDT

The March 18 Sunday New York Times Magazine cover story was a gripping account of the emotional problems some female veterans suffer as results of their war experiences, sexual assaults or both.

One of the women featured in the story was a former builder constructionman Amorita Randall, 27, who served six years as a Seabee. Randall told the Times that while in the Navy, she was raped twice — in 2002 while she was stationed in Mississippi, and again in Guam in 2004. She also told the Times that she served in Iraq in 2004, which the Times reported as fact but which it now appears was not the case.

The story was written by Sara Corbett, a contract writer for the magazine. Here’s how Corbett presented it: “Her experience in Iraq, she said, included one notable combat incident, in which her Humvee was hit by an I.E.D., killing the soldier who was driving and leaving her with a brain injury. ‘I don’t remember as all of it … I don’t know if I passed out or what, but it was pretty gruesome.’ “

The story goes on:

“According to the Navy, however, no after-action report exists to back up Randall’s claims of combat exposure or injury. A Navy spokesman reports that her commander says that his unit was never involved in combat during her tour. And yet, while we were discussing the supposed I.E.D. attack, Randall appeared to recall it in exacting detail — the smells, the sounds, the impact of the explosion. As she spoke, her body seemed to seize up; her speech became slurred as she slipped into a flashback. It was difficult to know what had traumatized Randall: whether she had in fact been in combat or whether she was reacting to some more generalized recollection of powerlessness.”

The Navy, while expressing sympathy to a woman it believes is suffering from stress, is annoyed that the Times did so little to check the woman’s story. A Times fact checker contacted Navy headquarters only three days before the magazine’s deadline. That, said Capt. Tom Van Leunen, deputy chief of information for the Navy, did not provide enough time to confirm Randall’s account of service in Iraq. Nonetheless, Van Leunen said, by deadline the Navy had provided enough information to the Times “to seriously question whether she’d been in Iraq.”

Aaron Rectica, who runs the magazine’s research desk, disputes that. He said that by deadline, the Navy had not given the Times any reason to disbelieve Randall’s claim of service in Iraq. Rectica said the Navy only told the paper that Randall’s commanders believed she’d been in Iraq but that no one in the unit had been in combat.

Unlike daily newspapers, which are usually printed very early on the day they are distributed, the Times’ magazine is printed a week ahead of time. The March 18 magazine went to press Friday, March 9. On the following Monday, March 12, the Navy told the Times that it had no record of Randall ever receiving hazardous duty pay or a combat zone tax exemption. One of the reasons for the Times’ apparent error was a medal. Randall’s personnel file includes a Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, which is only awarded to troops who have served in a war zone. The Navy now says that medal was given to Randall in error.

Reached by phone at her home in Grand Junction, Colo., Randall declined to talk but gave the phone to her fiancé, Gregory Lund.

“This lady was sexually assaulted twice in the Navy and no one was ever punished for it,” he said. While the Navy says it can find no rape complaint, Lund says she told her doctors about the assaults.

“She went through a lot.” Lund said. But he admits he doesn’t know for sure if Randall was ever in Iraq.

“If she wasn’t, it was a bad mistake on her part,” he said. But, he added, “For her to cope with [all she’s been through], her mind somehow believes she was in Iraq … She doesn’t remember anything in Iraq . If she was wrong about that, she’s sorry. But what you folks need to realize is how traumatized she is. If she’s wrong, I don’t know. She doesn’t know.”

The editor of the magazine, Gerry Marzorati, said he now suspects Randall was never in Iraq.

“I think she thinks she was in Iraq,” he said. “I don’t think she was trying to pull the wool over our eyes.”

The magazine did not call the Navy to check Randall’s Iraq story sooner, Marzorati said, because they believed that checking rank, years of service and time in Iraq “would be a perfunctory thing.”

He added that no one has challenged the military records of the 30 other women mentioned in the article.

On Sunday, The Times published a correction to the March 18 cover story. In it, the Times states that “it is now clear that Ms. Randall did not serve in Iraq, but may have become convinced she did.”

The correction also noted that since the article was published last week, Randall herself asked a member of her unit as to whether she served in Iraq. According to The Times, the sailor told Randall that she had not been deployed there.

[las47032]

According to Gateway Pundit Blog, Amorita Randall is a faker.

New York Times Plays the PTSD Fool for Iraq War Fraudster
After they ran a military/war-bashing piece on women in war, the New York Times Magazine found out one of the women in their expose did not in fact serve in Iraq as she said she had!

Michelle Malkin and Regret the Error have more on this little mishap.
Meet Amorita Randall...
This is what she told the NYT reporter:

Amorita Randall lives across the state from Christensen, in a small town outside of Grand Junction. She is 27, a former naval construction worker who served in Iraq in 2004. Over the course of several phone conversations before visiting her in January, I grew accustomed to the way Randall coexisted with her memories. Mostly she inched up to them.

On days she was feeling stable, she would want to talk, calling me up and abruptly jumping into stories about her six years in the Navy, describing how she was raped twice - the second rape supposedly taking place just a matter of weeks before she arrived in Iraq. Her experience in Iraq, she said, included one notable combat incident, in which her Humvee was hit by an I.E.D., killing the soldier who was driving and leaving her with a brain injury. "I don't remember all of it," she told me when I met her in the sparsely furnished apartment she shares with her fiance?. "I don't know if I passed out or what, but it was pretty gruesome."
Complete rubbish!
Although, it is now confirmed that Amorita Randall is indeed a fraudster, The New York Times Magazine still is running an interactive that includes Miss Randall.

And, get this...
"Saying something was looked down upon," says Amorita Randall a naval construction worker who served in Iraq in 2004. She says she was raped.

Here is the crazy correction:

CORRECTION: On March 12, three days after the article had gone to press, the Navy called The Times to say that it had found that Ms. Randall had never received imminent-danger pay or a combat-zone tax exemption, indicating that she was never in Iraq. Only part of her unit was sent there; Ms. Randall served with another part of it in Guam. The Navy also said that Ms. Randall was given the medal with the insignia because of a clerical error.

Based on the information that came to light after the article was printed, it is now clear that Ms. Randall did not serve in Iraq, but may have become convinced she did. Since the article appeared, Ms. Randall herself has questioned another member of her unit, who told Ms. Randall that she was not deployed to Iraq. If The Times had learned these facts before publication, it would not have included Ms. Randall in the article.
Miss Randall "may have become convinced" that she served in Iraq?
And I'm convinced I played for the Houston Rockets!
Where's my cash, jack?

To clarify... I certainly have sympathy and great respect for the men and women who suffer because of their service for our country. However, I have no sympathy for the NYT for publishing bogus accusations against the military!
That's crap.

Dan Riehl has more on Miss Amorita


Source: Gateway Pundit: <em>New York Times</em> Plays the PTSD Fool for Iraq War Fraudster


Question. Since when are women allowed to be in the Seabees?

If the combat exclusion law hasn't changed lately, I think Seabees is off limits to women, though they can have combat support MOS.

The P Factor A major change in Army policy to women’s roles is the established using the Direct Combat Probability Coding System enacted to enforce the combat exclusion policy. This coding system is used exclusively by the Army. The objective was to classify all Army jobs founded on MOS acronym for Military Occupational Specialty or AOC word form for Area of Concentration, and the unit’s duty assignment tactical regulation, and military location on the field of battle. All jobs are established using the P factor involving the likelihood of being on the battlefield, or involving man-go-man combat. Each specialty is rated according to the plausibility. P1 representing the greatest possibility and P7 the minimal. Women are banned from P1 MOS because that would place them in a region close around to the front lines.

20 December 1977 Army Combat Exclusion Policy issued. Women could serve in any military occupational specialty or unit for which qualified, except those of Infantry, Armor, Cannon Field Artillery, Combat Engineers, and Low Altitude Air Defense units of battalion size or smaller. Women could not serve in an MOS that involved combat duty.

1987Army officials informed the General Accounting Office that combat zone placement had the greatest impact on the rating of a position. The military usually classified jobs placed forward area of the brigade's rear area as P1, consequently making them inaccessible to women. However, women could move ahead of the brigade's rear perimeter briefly to deliver provisions or fix equipment. Besides, no limit remained on how far ahead a woman could continue during a short-lived trip.

Sources of information:

Chapter XIII: Women in the Army

Chapter XI The Women's Army Rights Movement and the WAC Chapter XI: The Women's Army Rights Movement and the WAC

CRS Issue Brief Women in the Armed Forces

"Should Women Be Barred from Combat Positions?"
92008: Women in the Armed Forces


Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs Home Page Women and War...
http://www.mdva.state.mn.us/aprup03.htm
MN Dept of Veterans Affairs : home


PROFILE OF THE NEW ARMY’
Chapter 9
Chapter 9: Profile of the New Army



U.S. Military Poll
Women in Ground Combat
U.S. Military Poll - Women in Ground Combat

Women in Combat Why Not?
Policy changes regarding women in combat 1992 to 1994
Women in Combat

Note: there would have been more links, but after checking them out, some no longer existed on the Internet, Or I got a message page not found.

Her allegation of sexual assault or Yelling wolf continues to make it more difficult for women who have actually been forced to have sex against their will.

Getting help for sexual assault and harassment.

Department of Veterans Affairs Home Page
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Center For Women Veterans
Women Veterans Home

WOMEN VETERANS
Information about VA benefits and health care

Domestic Violence in the Military

STAMP ---- Survivors Take Action Against Abuse By
Military Personnel
STAMPSurvivors Take Action Against Abuse By Military Personnel




Amorita isn't the first woman to be a poser.

Lisa Jane Phillips: Officials at Meredith College in North Carolina waived $42,178 in tuition for Captain Phillips after she returned from serving as an Air Force pilot in Iraq and Afghanistan. In January 2005, Phillips wore her uniform--adorned with a Bronze Star and Purple Heart--to class and told elaborate stories of her heroism. The campus police chief, a Vietnam veteran, got suspicious because one of the medals on Phillips' uniform was from WWII. He called in federal investigators, who charged Phillips with impersonating an officer and a dozen other federal crimes. She had never served in the military. http://www.dallasobserver.com/Issues/2005-09-01/news/feature_3.htmlhttp://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/04/20/national/main689701.shtml

Exposed, the 'weekend warrior' who was no hero http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/04/09/wlies09.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/04/09/ixworld.html

Fake War Hero Dupes N.C. College http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/04/20/national/main689701.shtml

Sarah Kenney: A woman in Grand Junction, Colorado, called a radio station in August 2004 using the name Amber Kenney, saying she was a National Guard soldier leaving for basic training and that her husband Jonathan was already fighting in Iraq. Kenney called in frequently with many details about their lives. In February 2005, Kenney contacted the media to say that her husband had been killed leaping in front of a bullet to save an Iraqi child. After an organization called Hometown Heroes sent a fax confirming the death, news outlets ran the story. But an investigation by a local newspaper revealed that Kenney's name was Sarah, not Amber. She'd never served in the National Guard, nor had her husband Michael, who was alive and managing a fast-food restaurant. Confronted, Kenney said, "I feel like an ass." She pleaded guilty to criminal impersonation and received probation. http://www.dallasobserver.com/Issues/2005-09-01/news/feature_3.htmlhttp://www.mudvillegazette.com/archives/002191.html

How to Spot a Phony Veteran Or False POW http://www.sftt.us/roster.html

P.O.W. Network's Phonies Index http://www.pownetwork.org/phonies/phonies.htm

Heroes vs. Fakes http://www.military.com/NewContent/0,13190,Defensewatch_030204_Fakes,00.html

Rongstad's Worldwide Military Links Phony Veterans http://vikingphoenix.com/military/veterans/phonyvet.htm

To report a suspected phony http://www.pownetwork.org/phonies/phonies96.htm

[Woodmonkey]

]“She went through a lot.” Lund said. But he admits he doesn’t know for sure if Randall was ever in Iraq.

“If she wasn’t, it was a bad mistake on her part,” he said. But, he added, “For her to cope with [all she’s been through], her mind somehow believes she was in Iraq … She doesn’t remember anything in Iraq . If she was wrong about that, she’s sorry. But what you folks need to realize is how traumatized she is. If she’s wrong, I don’t know. She doesn’t know.”

A bad mistake? Her mind somehow believes? Is that another way of saying that she lied?

Here she is. Aren't there any physical standards for women in the Navy?