The Arizona Guardian

By Dennis Welch
The Arizona Guardian

Gov. Jan Brewer said in a recent interview that her father died fighting Nazis in Germany. In fact, the death of Wilford Drinkwine came 10 years after World War II had ended.

During the war, Drinkwine worked as a civilian supervisor for a naval munitions depot in Hawthorne, Nev. He died of lung disease in 1955 in California.

Brewer made the comment to The Arizona Republic while talking about the criticism she has taken since signing SB 1070, the new immigration law that makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally.

 "Knowing that my father died fighting the Nazi regime in Germany, that I lost him when I was 11 because of that... and then to have them call me Hitler's daughter. It hurts. It's ugliness beyond anything I've ever experienced," Brewer said in the story, published Tuesday.

Officials with the governor's administration said her statement should not be taken to mean that she was claiming her father was a soldier in Germany during the Nazi regime.

Paul Senseman, the governor's spokesman, said Brewer's father eventually died from the toxic fumes he inhaled while working at the ammunition factory.

"She wasn't embellishing the story at all," Senseman said Tuesday. "You're reading something into this that isn't there."

He added that the governor has been very clear in the past about how her father died. Drinkwine was on full medical disability at the time of his death, Senseman said.

In a 2008 interview with the Republic, Brewer said her family was forced to move to California shortly before his death because of his health problems.

Brewer, 65, recounts similar stories in other media interviews and recent speeches. The governor is in Washington, D.C., this week and was unavailable for comment.

The governor's statement comes after Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal was caught embellishing his military record. Blumenthal, who is running for the U.S. Senate, said he served in Vietnam when in fact he did not, according to the New York Times.

A campaign spokesman for one of Brewer's political opponents was quick to criticize her latest published statement.

"To alter the facts represents a disservice to the families of veterans who died in combat. It also represents a credibility issue," said Mike Scerbo, a spokesman for Buz Mills' campaign.

"While (Mills) strongly objects to those who use the Nazi label to describe (SB) 1070 and Governor Brewer, that does not give the governor the right to alter history for the purpose of an eye-catching quote."

Mills is a former Marine who owns a gun school near Prescott.

Brewer and Mills are fighting to win the GOP nomination in the Aug. 24 primary. The winner will face Terry Goddard, the presumptive Democratic nominee for the job.