The people close to Ms. Babbitt have all responded with shock. Her husband, Aaron Babbitt, 39, told a Fox affiliate in San Diego that he had sent his wife a message about 30 minutes before the shooting, and she never responded.
Her brother, Roger Witthoeft, 32, said Ms. Babbitt had not told her family that she was planning to go to Washington. But he was not surprised that she would protest.
My sister was 35 and served 14 years to me thats the majority of your conscious adult life, said Mr. Witthoeft, of Lakeside, Calif. If you feel like you gave the majority of your life to your country and youre not being listened to, that is a hard pill to swallow. Thats why she was upset.
Ms. Babbitt, who had four younger brothers, was raised in a mostly apolitical household, Mr. Witthoeft said. Their father worked in commercial flooring and their mother in a school program. Ms. Babbitt enlisted in the Air Force after finishing high school.
While on active duty from 2004 to 2008, she met and married her first husband, Timothy McEntee. She worked as an enlisted security forces controller, a job whose duties include guarding gates at Air Force bases, and was deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq.
She then served in the Air Force Reserves and the Air National Guard. In the Guard, she was assigned to a unit based near Washington that is known as the Capital Guardians, because one of their primary missions is defending the city. Security forces in the squadron regularly train with riot shields and clubs for what the Air Force calls civil disturbance missions. She was deployed twice more, to the United Arab Emirates in 2012 and 2014, according to an Air Force spokewoman.read more
Who Was Ashli Babbitt? Woman Killed in Capitol Embraced Trump, QAnon
