Why Was Ashli Babbitt Denied a Military Funeral?

Memorial Day Is a Good Time for Reckoning

Following her shooting death on January 6, 35-year-old Ashli Babbitt, a 14-year veteran of the US Air Force, was denied a military funeral. ''Somebody from the Air Force decided that because of her participation in Jan. 6, she would not be eligible. It doesn't seem fair,'' Ashli’s mother, Micki Witthoeft, told Newsmax's ''Greg Kelly. ''It's just an outrage. It's an outrage. Like so many other things.”

''You know, my daughter was a proud patriot protesting and not an insurrectionist,” Witthoeft continued. “And I just think that narrative should cease to be pushed forward for any of our political prisoners. My daughter especially, included.''

The defamation continued well after Ashli’s death. On January 3, 2022, the Military Times—”your trusted, independent voice for news about service members at home and deployed around the world”—ran an article headlined, “A martyr? Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt’s past tells a more complex story.”

The AP article below the headline recounted in exquisite detail an altercation between Ashli and a woman named Celeste Morris whom Ashli’s future husband Aaron Babbitt abandoned for Ashli. Claimed the AP, “The attack on Norris is an example of erratic and sometimes threatening behavior by Babbitt, who was shot by a police officer while at the vanguard of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.” Other than the example cited by Aaron’s jilted girlfriend, the AP provided no other example. And the idea that Ashli was at the “vanguard” of the riot deserves a defamation suit of its own.

True, Ashli could be hot-headed. In the frantic moments before she died she yelled at the Capitol Police officers to “do your f***ing job” and even punched a window-breaking rioter whom the three officers refused to stop.

In one of the many ironies of January 6, Ashli Babbitt was better trained to deal with civil disturbances in Washington than were these officers or the Capitol Police lieutenant who shot and killed her. Ashli spent most of her Air Force career doing police work. While on active duty, she guarded the gates at bases in, among other hellholes, Iraq and Afghanistan. Later, while in the National Guard, she was assigned to the 113th Security Forces Squadron known as the “Capitol Guardians.” Operating out of Joint Base Andrews, the unit served as a ready response force for the District of Columbia except, curiously, on January 6.

Having been deployed multiple times to hot spots like Iraq and Afghanistan, Ashli had seen more of life and death than all but a handful of journalists. On her Twitter page, under the handle “CommonAshSense,” Ashli defined herself in a way that few Americans would think to criticize: “#veteran #America #libertarian #2A #KAG. I [love] my dude, my [dog], & above all my country. Flag, Flag, #Freedom.” The hashtag 2A, of course, refers to her support of the Second Amendment. #KAG appears to mean “Kick Ass Girl.”

And yet one major media article after another denied Ashli agency for her actions. “In the months before her death,” the Military Times article insisted, “Babbitt had become consumed by pro-Trump conspiracy theories.” Indeed, in its first article on Ashli, the New York Times ignored her own self definition and defined her in its own light, “Woman Killed in Capitol Embraced Trump and QAnon.” Chief among the conspiracy theories Ashli embraced was the COVID epidemic was being used by authorities to control people’s behavior. In fact, she referred to it is as the “controla virus.”

“We are being hoodwinked. The sheep need to wake up,” Ashli posted on social media. A sign on the door of her and Aaron’s pool supply business captured the take of most J6 protestors. It declared the business a “mask free autonomous zone, better known as America.” Another sign read simply, “If you need to wear a mask outside, I’m not sure we can help you.” Like so many J6ers, Ashli’s crime was knowing too much.

The Military Times article traced Ashli’s problems with Norris back to 2015. That same year, a defense department publication caught up with Ashli, a Senior Airman, as she was about to leave on her eighth deployment, this time to “an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia.”

As a veteran of overseas missions, Ashli served as something of a mentor to young airmen on their first deployment. “The newer airmen have been coming to us and asking about the living conditions, the weather, the gear, the schedule, how we work as teams, the hours we work,” Ashli told the interviewer. “As we have a large amount of first timers deploying with us, I think we can offer comfort and knowledge.”

The military chose not to remember the Ashli of the eight deployments and scolded those who did. “Former President Donald Trump and his supporters have sought to portray her as a righteous martyr who was unjustly killed,” the Military Times reminded its readers. “The officer who shot her was cleared of any wrongdoing by two federal investigations.” The fact that the Trump DoJ just settled with the Babbitt family for $5 million suggests something was deeply wrong with those two federal investigations.

Although “not a perfect person,” Micki Witthoeft said of Ashli, “she was an amazing woman.” To be sure, feminists will never claim Ashli as one of their own. That’s too bad. Ashli was the “strong woman” leftist women aspire to be but are too fond of their safe spaces to ever become. The traits of such a woman, one typical feminist site reported, include “being self confident, productive, optimistic, a go-getter, a fear-tackler, caring, unafraid to stand up for what one believes in, proud, unbothered by what others say or think, and true to one’s self.”

That was Ashli to the letter, a KAG. “Babbitt was a leader rather than a follower and liked being her own boss,” an airman friend told the FBI. “She loved life,” said husband Aaron. “She woke up every day wanting to take on the world. Never had a task she didn’t want to conquer. The harder it was, the more she wanted to fight for it.” Ashli never expected to die in the fight, and, to be fair, the Deep State had no interest in seeing her die.

Without intending, they created a martyr, and more than a martyr, an archetype of the American patriot. As each day passed, and more and more people learned the story of Ashli’s life and the facts surrounding her death, the rebellion against the Deep State grew. On November 5, 2024, the plot to steal the nation’s glory unraveled. In the months since, Democrats and their fellow travelers in the media have been exposed on a daily basis for their excesses, their sins against justice, and their savage indifference to the truth.

The memory of Ashli Babbit will live on in a different light. In the years to come, God willing, hers will be the face of the Great American Awakening, an awakening commemorated every year on the anniversary of the day the nation’s patriots risked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to rouse their fellow citizens to action, the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6, 2021.

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