Alliana Guitron; Ms. Veteran America

According to YNN, Alliana Guitron, a Syracuse native and the President’s videographer was named Ms. Veteran America;

Guitron has been serving her country since 2000. She is a Combat Documentation Production Specialist and has traveled the world with the President, Vice President and First Lady as their videographer.

Guitron currently lives in Maryland where she is working on a degree in criminal justice.

The Ms. Veteran American website explains the award;

The purpose of this event is to showcase “The Woman Beyond the Uniform“. As women, some of our femininity becomes lost when we wear the uniform; because we have to blend in with the boys. Our grace, poise, beauty and talents become camouflaged during our military service.

Along with being Soldiers, Marines, Airmen, and Sailors; we are also Mothers, Wives, Daughters, and Sisters!

Proceeds from this event provides housing for homeless female Veterans and their children.

Last year’s winner was Denyse Gordon whose focus was on sexual violence in the military during her reign, according to National Public Radio;

Gordon first experienced harassment early in her career, from a high-ranking civilian in her squadron who touched her and spoke to her inappropriately. She told her superiors, who questioned her story and warned her that coming forward could affect the perpetrator’s retirement. She felt blamed and never filed a complaint.

Later in her career, a man in another branch of the military physically assaulted Gordon. “He was an officer, and I was enlisted,” she says. “So if you tell, you get in trouble, and I didn’t want to feel the scrutiny that I felt at my first base, so there was no way I was telling. There was no way.” So she buried it, stayed in the military and threw herself into her schoolwork, earning multiple degrees.

Gordon says she blames the men who harassed and assaulted her, but not the military as an institution. “There are individuals that are flat out not going to believe you. And it’s a hard pill to swallow when it’s your superiors, when it’s your close friends because if they feel if you come forward you will ruin unit cohesion, you will ruin that esprit de corps,” says Gordon. “And I hope one day that the leadership would put so much pressure on any offenders that they would think twice, three times before even venturing into that arena.”

That’s probably the most mature view of the problem that I’ve read – she blames the men who harassed her and not the military, in general, like most of my liberal friends seem to do.

Category: Veterans Issues