Last Sunday's front page Veterans Day story opened with this paragraph:

"At first glance, Christina Axtman, the 5-foot tall, 31-year-old former Army cook from Mullan, does not look like an Iraq war veteran."

Turns out, she apparently isn't.

This week the Shoshone News-Press received tips that Axtman had made up much of her military story - that she didn't serve in Iraq, that she didn't shoot a woman running up to Camp Taji with an explosive device and a baby strapped to her front, that she wasn't seriously injured when the Humvee she allegedly was driving hit an improvised explosive device.

The News-Press contacted military officials who paint a different picture of Axtman.

Col. Tim Marsano, public affairs officer for the Idaho National Guard, wrote to the News-Press:

"She was a member of the Idaho Army National Guard for a short time in mid 2003. Records indicate she shipped to Basic Training, was injured in a training accident (broken ribs), and returned to Idaho. Was discharged in late Sep, 2003 (UNCHARACTERIZED). No known deployment with the IDARNG. If she subsequently enlisted into the active-duty U.S. Army, we have no record of it."

Capt. Tim W. Irvin, public affairs officer at Fort Knox, Kent., for the U.S. Department of Defense, wrote that Axtman - who also goes by Christina Marie Kale - served in the Army National Guard from April 29, 2003 to Sept. 29, 2003, but that she was never deployed. He listed her only duty location as Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.

Questioned several times by the News-Press, Axtman stuck to her original story.