PrintSieg Heil, Baby. Dem Congresswoman's Luftwaffe gaffe
Democratic Congresswoman Julia Brownley sent out a mailer at taxpayer expense, highlighting her love of the military - among other things she supports like apple pie and baseball - probably babies too.
It was a slick mailer, alright, except for one teeny, tiny problem; the picture used to depict an American in the military was fake. We know this because the uniform the young woman is wearing displays the insignia of the Nazi era German Luftwaffe - Hitler's air force.
Democratic lawmaker Julia Brownley sent a political mailer to her constituents in late July featuring a woman wearing fake military attire and a German Luftwaffe insignia — apparently unaware that the costume was not an official uniform worn by U.S. personnel.
On Monday Jeff Gorell, Brownley’s Republican opponent in California’s 26 congressional district, sent out a press release highlighting the congresswoman’s taxpayer-funded faux pas.
The candidate claims that “concerned local veterans” brought to his attention a photograph featured along the top of the flyer — which also contains pictures of a young family, a child going to school, a vibrant classroom and other common campaign themes.
That photograph shows a young woman in a white, open-collared military uniform, wearing a white cap displaying a gold insignia and blue-and-gold trim.
Though it bears a fleeting resemblance to official attire worn by the U.S. Navy, no branch of the United States military wears a uniform like the one in the mailer. And the insignia on the cap is the symbol of the Bundeswehr Luftwaffe, Germany’s air force.
A look at all of the Bundeswehr’s official uniforms offers no similar outfit in any branch of the Germany military, lending credence to Gorell’s speculation that the picture is “a purchased stock photo of a model in a costume contrived from various emblems to look like an official [U.S.] naval uniform.”
“This gaff is disrespectful to those who have worn the uniform of the United States,” Gorell continues, calling it “indicative of a fundamental lack of understanding of veterans and the military by Brownley, her staff, and her political advisors.”
Brownley serves on the House Committee for Veteran Affairs and is ranking member on the House’s Subcommittee on Health, which oversees the VA. Her district includes Naval Base Ventura County, a large military installation near the southern California town of Oxnard that supports 19,000 naval personnel.
“Washington is packed with politicians who love to pay lip service, to use our military veterans as props around election time,” Jessie Jane Duff, a retired Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant and advisor to Concerned Veterans for America, told The Daily Caller. “You would think that Rep. Brownley, who serves on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, would at least be able to do so correctly.”
Perfectly understandable, don't you think? The US Navy, the Luftwaffe - what's the difference? They're both military, aren't they?
Brownley also once sent out an email to constituents that stated her father served as a"'Marine in the U.S. Navy." And she sits on the Veterans Affairs committee?
This ought to be one hell of an apology from Brownley.
