Interesting: Congressional candidate Dorothy Gasque (Running as Bernieite against Herrera, I guess) is a combat veteran?

I don't know this person and, in fact, have never heard of her before today.  SHe has announced against our current Congressional Cluelessness, Jaime Herrera.

But I was intrigued due to her leading off as a "combat veteran."

I'm always on the look out for a replacement for Jaime Herrera, but the first requirement for that person is they must be truthful.

That, you see, comes ahead of party, because anyone can claim to be anything to get elected.  (Just look at Sen. Ann "Gas Tax" Rivers, who claims to be a Republican but who votes more like former Sen. Ed Murray D-Seattle).

So, this is what I stumbled across when I went to her "Meet Dorothy" section of her campaign web page.

What "insurgents" had or didn't have doesn't determine the Table of Organization and Equipment of an Army unit.  Thus, the question of what insurgents had was not relevant to her ultimate job description as I see it.

The unit she claims to have been a part of is a unit I also served in, the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment.  (HQR 11th ACR - Force Modernization, Bradley Fielding)

Each unit in the line squadrons comes equipped with the M3CFV (The Bradley Cavalry Fighting Vehicle) and each Bradley has twin TOW Missile Launchers.

M3CFV firing a TOW Missile from the launcher on the right side of the turret, upright in the firing position.

The CFV is the Cavalry version, the M2IFV is the Infantry Version.  Both have TOW2 Launchers and 12 TOWS on board.

The missiles were there.  The TOWs were there.  The primary function of TOWS is anti-tank, anti-armor, anti-vehicle and anti-fortification.  The need to maintain them continued.

Now, is Dorothy anything but what she claims?  I have no idea.  I have contacted her campaign to ask for additional information and I have sent her claims to "Stolen Valor" so they can verify her service.

My message to her campaign:

Message:

I'm intrigued by your description of your service: Dorothy Gasque is a third generation public servant. She served eight years in the U.S. Army. In 2005 she deployed to Iraq, with an otherwise all male combat unit. Although she was trained as an anti-tank missile systems technician, the insurgent forces did not have tanks. Due to her rank as a non-commissioned officer, she was often asked to lead combat patrols, organize traffic checkpoints, and manage base security. __________________ I'd like more detail so I can verify this. Thank you for your time. K.J. Hinton - Brush Prairie Your response will be blogged in Clark County Politics.

Whatever the responses are, I will place them here and I seriously, seriously hope she's on the level with all of this... because I definitely want Herrera gone... but not at the expense of the truth.