Re: OT: GW Bush and the TX ANG (for those interested)
 

This newsgroup does have a Charter and politics sure ain't part of it.
The Charter is posted here:

ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/news.announc...rs.jeep+willys

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Steelgtr62 wrote:
>
<snip BS>

Re: OT: GW Bush and the TX ANG (for those interested)
 

This newsgroup does have a Charter and politics sure ain't part of it.
The Charter is posted here:

ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/news.announc...rs.jeep+willys

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Steelgtr62 wrote:
>
<snip BS>

Re: OT: GW Bush and the TX ANG (for those interested)
 

This newsgroup does have a Charter and politics sure ain't part of it.
The Charter is posted here:

ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/news.announc...rs.jeep+willys

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Steelgtr62 wrote:
>
<snip BS>

Re: GW Bush and the TX ANG (for those interested)
 

PLONK!

"Steelgtr62" <steelgtr62@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20040921174913.27979.00001162@mb-m02.aol.com...
> http://www.airforcetimes.com/story.p...PER-357916.php
>
> Issue Date: September 27, 2004
>
> Bush's Air Guard stint started well, then faded into mystery
>
> By William H. McMichael
> Times Staff Writer
>
>
> John F. Kerry's service in Vietnam and his postwar testimonials have been
> targeted all summer by Republican-funded critics and veterans groups - so
> much so that for several months they have obscured George W. Bush's
> much-criticized Vietnam-era service in the National Guard. A renewed
> interest
> in Bush's service raised by a critical CBS News report exploded in
> controversy over whether some recently unearthed Bush documents were
> actually
> forgeries.
> From most accounts, Bush appears to have received preferential treatment
> to get
> into the Air National Guard and avoid the draft after he graduated from
> Yale
> University in 1968. He was initially regarded as a good pilot, but his
> performance faded over his final two years in the Guard and he was
> suspended
> from flight status. He did not fly for the remaining 18 months he served
> in the
> Guard, though he was obligated to do so.
>
> And for significant chunks of time, Bush did not report for duty at all.
> His
> superiors took no action, and he was honorably discharged in 1973, six
> months
> before he should have been.
>
> In a 2002 interview with USA Today, Dean Roome, a former fighter pilot who
> lived with Bush in the early 1970s, said Bush was a model officer during
> the
> first part of his career. But overall, he said, Bush's Air Guard career
> was
> erratic - the first three years solid, the last two troubled.
>
> "You wonder if you know who George Bush is," Roome said. "I think he
> digressed after a while. In the first half, he was gung-ho. Where George
> failed
> was to fulfill his obligation as a pilot. It was an irrational time in his
> life."
>
> Awaiting the draft
>
> In June 1968, with his student deferment ready to expire when he graduated
> from
> Yale, Bush faced the draft, just like hundreds of thousands of other young
> Americans. The controversial Vietnam War was raging, and draftees often
> ended
> up in Vietnam's jungles. Thirty-eight percent of the 1.73 million men
> drafted
> between 1965 and 1973 served in Vietnam, and draftees accounted for 30.4
> percent of the war's 58,245 combat deaths.
>
> Bush did not get drafted. Instead, two weeks before graduation, he joined
> the
> Texas Air National Guard - a so-called "champagne unit" that included
> other sons of rich and influential Texans. He signed up for a six-year
> term.
> There was a waiting list, as was the case at most Guard and Reserve units
> throughout the country, because such service was generally considered a
> likely
> way to avoid combat (5,977 reservists and 101 guardsmen died in Vietnam).
> But
> according to one highly visible source, Bush didn't have to wait.
>
> Former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes told the CBS program "60 Minutes" on
> Sept.
> 8 that he'd used his political influence to jump the young Bush ahead of
> "hundreds" of others to get the Guard slot. He'd first said this publicly
> after testifying in a 1999 federal court deposition, saying he'd done the
> favor at the request of a Bush family friend. At the time Bush joined the
> Air
> Guard, his father, George H.W. Bush, was serving his first term as a
> congressman from Texas.
>
> "I would describe it as preferential treatment," Barnes, a Democrat who is
> supporting Kerry's presidential bid, told CBS.
>
> For its part, the Bush campaign stands behind the president's service.
> "The
> president's proud of his service," said Reed Dickins, a Bush campaign
> spokesman. "The president served honorably, similarly to the thousands of
> National Guard (members) that are serving our country today. The attacks
> on
> this president's service have been purely political."
>
> It may be difficult for younger readers to understand the volatility of
> this
> issue during the Vietnam era, particularly given the extensive involvement
> of
> today's Guard and reserve in Iraq. Secretary of State Colin Powell's 1995
> book "My American Journey" put it eloquently:
>
> "The policies - determining who would be drafted and who would be
> deferred,
> who would serve and who would escape, who would die and who would live -
> were
> an antidemocratic disgrace," Powell wrote. "I am angry that so many of the
> sons of the powerful and well placed . managed to wangle slots in reserve
> and
> National Guard units. Of the many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class
> discrimination strikes me as the most damaging to the ideal that all
> Americans
> are created equal and owe equal allegiance to their country."
>
> 'Combat ready'
>
> Bush graduated from flight school in 1969, was certified July 9, 1970, as
> "combat ready" in the F-102, and began winning praise for his flight and
> leadership skills. On his April 30, 1971, fitness report, covering 166
> active-duty days over a period of 17 months, he earned high marks.
>
> "Lt. Bush is an exceptionally fine young officer and pilot," wrote his
> commanding officer in the 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron in Houston,
> Lt.
> Col. Jerry B. Killian. Bush "performed in an outstanding manner . a
> natural
> leader."
>
> But from there, Bush's performance slipped. The descent began when Bush
> apparently did not follow an order to report for his annual flight
> physical in
> May 1972, which got him grounded.
>
> The grounding was noted in one of the four documents unveiled by CBS -
> which
> were given to the White House, which released them to the rest of the
> media. It
> appears to be an order signed by Killian suspending Bush from flight
> status
> "due to failure to perform to USAF/TexANG standards and failure to meet
> annual physical examination (flight) as ordered."
>
> Handwriting experts hired by many media organizations as well as other
> critics
> contend the document, and possibly all four, are forgeries. However,
> Killian's order is confirmed by two documents that were not part of the
> CBS
> papers. The first is a White House-released letter from the commander of
> the
> 147th Fighter Group, Col. Bobby W. Hodges, to its Texas higher command
> dated
> Sept. 5, 1972, with a subject line of "Suspension From Flying Status."
>
> The letter documents the missed flight physical and the suspension,
> "effective 1 Aug 1972." A Sept. 29 order from the National Guard Bureau
> further confirms the missed physical and the suspension.
>
> On May 26, 1972, Bush asked in writing for reassignment to an Air Reserve
> squadron in Alabama so he could work on the U.S. Senate campaign of
> Republican
> Winton "Red" Blount, a close friend of his influential father. That was
> rejected because Bush was obligated to serve as a Ready Reservist until
> May 26,
> 1974, and was ineligible for assignment to the Air Reserve. About three
> months
> later, on Sept. 5, Bush asked to perform "equivalent duty" with the
> Alabama
> unit from September to November. Killian approved the request a day later.
> The
> orders went through on Sept. 15, and while Bush had missed the Sept. 9-10
> unit
> training assembly, the document noted he could make the next two. Bush's
> Officer Military Record shows an Oct. 1, 1973, discharge from the Texas
> Air
> National Guard and transfer to the Alabama unit.
>
> Another White House-released document shows a total of 56 points Bush
> apparently earned during this 12-month period, but it's awarded in one
> lump
> sum rather than credited for each training period. But this document also
> contains an error, listing Bush's status as "PLT On-Fly" - meaning he
> was on flight status - when he had not been for a year. This, said retired
> Army Lt. Col. Gerald A. Lechliter, who has done an in-depth analysis of
> Bush's pay records (http://www.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/.../lechliter.pdf),
> makes the form's authenticity suspect.
>
> There's also the record of a Jan. 6, 1973, dental exam performed on Bush
> at
> Dannelly Air National Guard Base, Ala. There's nothing that documents why
> Bush, who reportedly returned to Texas after the election, didn't get this
> work done closer to home.
>
> Bush's attendance and participation in weekend drills had been
> meticulously
> recorded up through May 1972. But other than the points record and the
> dental
> exam record, the year following Bush's request for reassignment to Alabama
> is
> a blank.
>
> In a fitness report supplement released by the White House this year, an
> administrative officer wrote, "Not rated for the period 1 May 72 through
> 30
> Apr 73. Report for this period not available for administrative reasons."
>
> In the remarks section, Killian wrote that Bush "has not been observed at
> this unit during the period of report. . He cleared this base on 15 May
> 1972
> and has been performing equivalent training in a non flying status" with
> the
> Alabama unit. Bush, however, was only authorized to be gone from September
> to
> November.
>
> 'Don't remember seeing you'
>
> The same day Barnes spoke with CBS, a new pro-Kerry group, Texans for
> Truth,
> announced it was launching a TV ad campaign that would attack Bush for
> failing
> to perform his duties while temporarily assigned to the Alabama unit.
> While it
> wasn't a new accusation, the ad featured a member of that unit who said
> he'd never met the future president.
>
> "I heard George Bush get up and say, 'I served in the 187th Air National
> Guard in Montgomery, Alabama,'" retired Lt. Col. Robert Mintz said on
> camera. "Really? That was my unit. And I don't remember seeing you there.
> ."
>
> On Sept. 5, Bush formally asked Killian for a discharge from the Texas
> unit so
> he could attend Harvard Business School in Cambridge, Mass. Two weeks
> later,
> Hodges approved the request and honorably discharged Bush,
> administratively
> transferring him to Headquarters, Air Reserve Personnel Center in Denver.
>
> Two months earlier, on June 30, Bush signed a statement promising that if
> he
> left his Texas Ready Reserve unit, "it is my responsibility to locate and
> be
> assigned to another Reserve Forces unit or mobilization augmentation
> position.
> If I fail to do so, I am subject to involuntary order to active duty for
> up to
> 24 months."
>
> There is no record of Bush ever having signed on with a Massachusetts
> Reserve
> unit. In 1999, Dan Bartlett, working for the Bush campaign, told The
> Washington
> Post that Bush had completed his six-year commitment with a Boston unit.
> That
> didn't happen, Bartlett recently told The Boston Globe. "I must have
> misspoke," he said. The following March, Bush was redesignated as an
> "executive support officer." In May, he was placed on inactive status. On
> Nov. 21 - apparently at Bush's written request, according to an undated
> letter sent from Massachusetts and released by the White House in which he
> requests "to discharge from the standby reserve" - he received an
> honorable discharge "from all appointments in the United States Air
> Force."
>
>
> Documents in question
>
> The renewed examination of the Bush record, however, has been somewhat
> obscured
> by the explosion of media interest in the documents CBS displayed on the
> same
> program featuring Barnes.
>
> In a matter of minutes, Internet "bloggers" were raising questions about
> the authenticity of the documents, claiming that that era's typewriters
> could
> not have produced some of the typographical elements in the memos and that
> they
> were computer-generated forgeries. They also said that Killian's signature
> was either forged or copied from actual documents.
>
> Killian's former secretary, Marian Carr Knox, 86, of Houston, has said she
> believed the memos were fake but their content accurately reflected
> Killian's
> opinions.
>
> "I know that I didn't type them," she said in an interview with CBS.
> "However, the information in those is correct."
>
> As of Sept. 16, CBS continued to stand by its reporting.
>
> William H. McMichael covers the Navy from Hampton Roads, Va. Reach him at
> (757)
> 223-0096 or by e-mail at bmcmichael@atpco.com
>
>

Re: GW Bush and the TX ANG (for those interested)
 

PLONK!

"Steelgtr62" <steelgtr62@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20040921174913.27979.00001162@mb-m02.aol.com...
> http://www.airforcetimes.com/story.p...PER-357916.php
>
> Issue Date: September 27, 2004
>
> Bush's Air Guard stint started well, then faded into mystery
>
> By William H. McMichael
> Times Staff Writer
>
>
> John F. Kerry's service in Vietnam and his postwar testimonials have been
> targeted all summer by Republican-funded critics and veterans groups - so
> much so that for several months they have obscured George W. Bush's
> much-criticized Vietnam-era service in the National Guard. A renewed
> interest
> in Bush's service raised by a critical CBS News report exploded in
> controversy over whether some recently unearthed Bush documents were
> actually
> forgeries.
> From most accounts, Bush appears to have received preferential treatment
> to get
> into the Air National Guard and avoid the draft after he graduated from
> Yale
> University in 1968. He was initially regarded as a good pilot, but his
> performance faded over his final two years in the Guard and he was
> suspended
> from flight status. He did not fly for the remaining 18 months he served
> in the
> Guard, though he was obligated to do so.
>
> And for significant chunks of time, Bush did not report for duty at all.
> His
> superiors took no action, and he was honorably discharged in 1973, six
> months
> before he should have been.
>
> In a 2002 interview with USA Today, Dean Roome, a former fighter pilot who
> lived with Bush in the early 1970s, said Bush was a model officer during
> the
> first part of his career. But overall, he said, Bush's Air Guard career
> was
> erratic - the first three years solid, the last two troubled.
>
> "You wonder if you know who George Bush is," Roome said. "I think he
> digressed after a while. In the first half, he was gung-ho. Where George
> failed
> was to fulfill his obligation as a pilot. It was an irrational time in his
> life."
>
> Awaiting the draft
>
> In June 1968, with his student deferment ready to expire when he graduated
> from
> Yale, Bush faced the draft, just like hundreds of thousands of other young
> Americans. The controversial Vietnam War was raging, and draftees often
> ended
> up in Vietnam's jungles. Thirty-eight percent of the 1.73 million men
> drafted
> between 1965 and 1973 served in Vietnam, and draftees accounted for 30.4
> percent of the war's 58,245 combat deaths.
>
> Bush did not get drafted. Instead, two weeks before graduation, he joined
> the
> Texas Air National Guard - a so-called "champagne unit" that included
> other sons of rich and influential Texans. He signed up for a six-year
> term.
> There was a waiting list, as was the case at most Guard and Reserve units
> throughout the country, because such service was generally considered a
> likely
> way to avoid combat (5,977 reservists and 101 guardsmen died in Vietnam).
> But
> according to one highly visible source, Bush didn't have to wait.
>
> Former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes told the CBS program "60 Minutes" on
> Sept.
> 8 that he'd used his political influence to jump the young Bush ahead of
> "hundreds" of others to get the Guard slot. He'd first said this publicly
> after testifying in a 1999 federal court deposition, saying he'd done the
> favor at the request of a Bush family friend. At the time Bush joined the
> Air
> Guard, his father, George H.W. Bush, was serving his first term as a
> congressman from Texas.
>
> "I would describe it as preferential treatment," Barnes, a Democrat who is
> supporting Kerry's presidential bid, told CBS.
>
> For its part, the Bush campaign stands behind the president's service.
> "The
> president's proud of his service," said Reed Dickins, a Bush campaign
> spokesman. "The president served honorably, similarly to the thousands of
> National Guard (members) that are serving our country today. The attacks
> on
> this president's service have been purely political."
>
> It may be difficult for younger readers to understand the volatility of
> this
> issue during the Vietnam era, particularly given the extensive involvement
> of
> today's Guard and reserve in Iraq. Secretary of State Colin Powell's 1995
> book "My American Journey" put it eloquently:
>
> "The policies - determining who would be drafted and who would be
> deferred,
> who would serve and who would escape, who would die and who would live -
> were
> an antidemocratic disgrace," Powell wrote. "I am angry that so many of the
> sons of the powerful and well placed . managed to wangle slots in reserve
> and
> National Guard units. Of the many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class
> discrimination strikes me as the most damaging to the ideal that all
> Americans
> are created equal and owe equal allegiance to their country."
>
> 'Combat ready'
>
> Bush graduated from flight school in 1969, was certified July 9, 1970, as
> "combat ready" in the F-102, and began winning praise for his flight and
> leadership skills. On his April 30, 1971, fitness report, covering 166
> active-duty days over a period of 17 months, he earned high marks.
>
> "Lt. Bush is an exceptionally fine young officer and pilot," wrote his
> commanding officer in the 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron in Houston,
> Lt.
> Col. Jerry B. Killian. Bush "performed in an outstanding manner . a
> natural
> leader."
>
> But from there, Bush's performance slipped. The descent began when Bush
> apparently did not follow an order to report for his annual flight
> physical in
> May 1972, which got him grounded.
>
> The grounding was noted in one of the four documents unveiled by CBS -
> which
> were given to the White House, which released them to the rest of the
> media. It
> appears to be an order signed by Killian suspending Bush from flight
> status
> "due to failure to perform to USAF/TexANG standards and failure to meet
> annual physical examination (flight) as ordered."
>
> Handwriting experts hired by many media organizations as well as other
> critics
> contend the document, and possibly all four, are forgeries. However,
> Killian's order is confirmed by two documents that were not part of the
> CBS
> papers. The first is a White House-released letter from the commander of
> the
> 147th Fighter Group, Col. Bobby W. Hodges, to its Texas higher command
> dated
> Sept. 5, 1972, with a subject line of "Suspension From Flying Status."
>
> The letter documents the missed flight physical and the suspension,
> "effective 1 Aug 1972." A Sept. 29 order from the National Guard Bureau
> further confirms the missed physical and the suspension.
>
> On May 26, 1972, Bush asked in writing for reassignment to an Air Reserve
> squadron in Alabama so he could work on the U.S. Senate campaign of
> Republican
> Winton "Red" Blount, a close friend of his influential father. That was
> rejected because Bush was obligated to serve as a Ready Reservist until
> May 26,
> 1974, and was ineligible for assignment to the Air Reserve. About three
> months
> later, on Sept. 5, Bush asked to perform "equivalent duty" with the
> Alabama
> unit from September to November. Killian approved the request a day later.
> The
> orders went through on Sept. 15, and while Bush had missed the Sept. 9-10
> unit
> training assembly, the document noted he could make the next two. Bush's
> Officer Military Record shows an Oct. 1, 1973, discharge from the Texas
> Air
> National Guard and transfer to the Alabama unit.
>
> Another White House-released document shows a total of 56 points Bush
> apparently earned during this 12-month period, but it's awarded in one
> lump
> sum rather than credited for each training period. But this document also
> contains an error, listing Bush's status as "PLT On-Fly" - meaning he
> was on flight status - when he had not been for a year. This, said retired
> Army Lt. Col. Gerald A. Lechliter, who has done an in-depth analysis of
> Bush's pay records (http://www.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/.../lechliter.pdf),
> makes the form's authenticity suspect.
>
> There's also the record of a Jan. 6, 1973, dental exam performed on Bush
> at
> Dannelly Air National Guard Base, Ala. There's nothing that documents why
> Bush, who reportedly returned to Texas after the election, didn't get this
> work done closer to home.
>
> Bush's attendance and participation in weekend drills had been
> meticulously
> recorded up through May 1972. But other than the points record and the
> dental
> exam record, the year following Bush's request for reassignment to Alabama
> is
> a blank.
>
> In a fitness report supplement released by the White House this year, an
> administrative officer wrote, "Not rated for the period 1 May 72 through
> 30
> Apr 73. Report for this period not available for administrative reasons."
>
> In the remarks section, Killian wrote that Bush "has not been observed at
> this unit during the period of report. . He cleared this base on 15 May
> 1972
> and has been performing equivalent training in a non flying status" with
> the
> Alabama unit. Bush, however, was only authorized to be gone from September
> to
> November.
>
> 'Don't remember seeing you'
>
> The same day Barnes spoke with CBS, a new pro-Kerry group, Texans for
> Truth,
> announced it was launching a TV ad campaign that would attack Bush for
> failing
> to perform his duties while temporarily assigned to the Alabama unit.
> While it
> wasn't a new accusation, the ad featured a member of that unit who said
> he'd never met the future president.
>
> "I heard George Bush get up and say, 'I served in the 187th Air National
> Guard in Montgomery, Alabama,'" retired Lt. Col. Robert Mintz said on
> camera. "Really? That was my unit. And I don't remember seeing you there.
> ."
>
> On Sept. 5, Bush formally asked Killian for a discharge from the Texas
> unit so
> he could attend Harvard Business School in Cambridge, Mass. Two weeks
> later,
> Hodges approved the request and honorably discharged Bush,
> administratively
> transferring him to Headquarters, Air Reserve Personnel Center in Denver.
>
> Two months earlier, on June 30, Bush signed a statement promising that if
> he
> left his Texas Ready Reserve unit, "it is my responsibility to locate and
> be
> assigned to another Reserve Forces unit or mobilization augmentation
> position.
> If I fail to do so, I am subject to involuntary order to active duty for
> up to
> 24 months."
>
> There is no record of Bush ever having signed on with a Massachusetts
> Reserve
> unit. In 1999, Dan Bartlett, working for the Bush campaign, told The
> Washington
> Post that Bush had completed his six-year commitment with a Boston unit.
> That
> didn't happen, Bartlett recently told The Boston Globe. "I must have
> misspoke," he said. The following March, Bush was redesignated as an
> "executive support officer." In May, he was placed on inactive status. On
> Nov. 21 - apparently at Bush's written request, according to an undated
> letter sent from Massachusetts and released by the White House in which he
> requests "to discharge from the standby reserve" - he received an
> honorable discharge "from all appointments in the United States Air
> Force."
>
>
> Documents in question
>
> The renewed examination of the Bush record, however, has been somewhat
> obscured
> by the explosion of media interest in the documents CBS displayed on the
> same
> program featuring Barnes.
>
> In a matter of minutes, Internet "bloggers" were raising questions about
> the authenticity of the documents, claiming that that era's typewriters
> could
> not have produced some of the typographical elements in the memos and that
> they
> were computer-generated forgeries. They also said that Killian's signature
> was either forged or copied from actual documents.
>
> Killian's former secretary, Marian Carr Knox, 86, of Houston, has said she
> believed the memos were fake but their content accurately reflected
> Killian's
> opinions.
>
> "I know that I didn't type them," she said in an interview with CBS.
> "However, the information in those is correct."
>
> As of Sept. 16, CBS continued to stand by its reporting.
>
> William H. McMichael covers the Navy from Hampton Roads, Va. Reach him at
> (757)
> 223-0096 or by e-mail at bmcmichael@atpco.com
>
>

Re: GW Bush and the TX ANG (for those interested)
 

PLONK!

"Steelgtr62" <steelgtr62@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20040921174913.27979.00001162@mb-m02.aol.com...
> http://www.airforcetimes.com/story.p...PER-357916.php
>
> Issue Date: September 27, 2004
>
> Bush's Air Guard stint started well, then faded into mystery
>
> By William H. McMichael
> Times Staff Writer
>
>
> John F. Kerry's service in Vietnam and his postwar testimonials have been
> targeted all summer by Republican-funded critics and veterans groups - so
> much so that for several months they have obscured George W. Bush's
> much-criticized Vietnam-era service in the National Guard. A renewed
> interest
> in Bush's service raised by a critical CBS News report exploded in
> controversy over whether some recently unearthed Bush documents were
> actually
> forgeries.
> From most accounts, Bush appears to have received preferential treatment
> to get
> into the Air National Guard and avoid the draft after he graduated from
> Yale
> University in 1968. He was initially regarded as a good pilot, but his
> performance faded over his final two years in the Guard and he was
> suspended
> from flight status. He did not fly for the remaining 18 months he served
> in the
> Guard, though he was obligated to do so.
>
> And for significant chunks of time, Bush did not report for duty at all.
> His
> superiors took no action, and he was honorably discharged in 1973, six
> months
> before he should have been.
>
> In a 2002 interview with USA Today, Dean Roome, a former fighter pilot who
> lived with Bush in the early 1970s, said Bush was a model officer during
> the
> first part of his career. But overall, he said, Bush's Air Guard career
> was
> erratic - the first three years solid, the last two troubled.
>
> "You wonder if you know who George Bush is," Roome said. "I think he
> digressed after a while. In the first half, he was gung-ho. Where George
> failed
> was to fulfill his obligation as a pilot. It was an irrational time in his
> life."
>
> Awaiting the draft
>
> In June 1968, with his student deferment ready to expire when he graduated
> from
> Yale, Bush faced the draft, just like hundreds of thousands of other young
> Americans. The controversial Vietnam War was raging, and draftees often
> ended
> up in Vietnam's jungles. Thirty-eight percent of the 1.73 million men
> drafted
> between 1965 and 1973 served in Vietnam, and draftees accounted for 30.4
> percent of the war's 58,245 combat deaths.
>
> Bush did not get drafted. Instead, two weeks before graduation, he joined
> the
> Texas Air National Guard - a so-called "champagne unit" that included
> other sons of rich and influential Texans. He signed up for a six-year
> term.
> There was a waiting list, as was the case at most Guard and Reserve units
> throughout the country, because such service was generally considered a
> likely
> way to avoid combat (5,977 reservists and 101 guardsmen died in Vietnam).
> But
> according to one highly visible source, Bush didn't have to wait.
>
> Former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes told the CBS program "60 Minutes" on
> Sept.
> 8 that he'd used his political influence to jump the young Bush ahead of
> "hundreds" of others to get the Guard slot. He'd first said this publicly
> after testifying in a 1999 federal court deposition, saying he'd done the
> favor at the request of a Bush family friend. At the time Bush joined the
> Air
> Guard, his father, George H.W. Bush, was serving his first term as a
> congressman from Texas.
>
> "I would describe it as preferential treatment," Barnes, a Democrat who is
> supporting Kerry's presidential bid, told CBS.
>
> For its part, the Bush campaign stands behind the president's service.
> "The
> president's proud of his service," said Reed Dickins, a Bush campaign
> spokesman. "The president served honorably, similarly to the thousands of
> National Guard (members) that are serving our country today. The attacks
> on
> this president's service have been purely political."
>
> It may be difficult for younger readers to understand the volatility of
> this
> issue during the Vietnam era, particularly given the extensive involvement
> of
> today's Guard and reserve in Iraq. Secretary of State Colin Powell's 1995
> book "My American Journey" put it eloquently:
>
> "The policies - determining who would be drafted and who would be
> deferred,
> who would serve and who would escape, who would die and who would live -
> were
> an antidemocratic disgrace," Powell wrote. "I am angry that so many of the
> sons of the powerful and well placed . managed to wangle slots in reserve
> and
> National Guard units. Of the many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class
> discrimination strikes me as the most damaging to the ideal that all
> Americans
> are created equal and owe equal allegiance to their country."
>
> 'Combat ready'
>
> Bush graduated from flight school in 1969, was certified July 9, 1970, as
> "combat ready" in the F-102, and began winning praise for his flight and
> leadership skills. On his April 30, 1971, fitness report, covering 166
> active-duty days over a period of 17 months, he earned high marks.
>
> "Lt. Bush is an exceptionally fine young officer and pilot," wrote his
> commanding officer in the 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron in Houston,
> Lt.
> Col. Jerry B. Killian. Bush "performed in an outstanding manner . a
> natural
> leader."
>
> But from there, Bush's performance slipped. The descent began when Bush
> apparently did not follow an order to report for his annual flight
> physical in
> May 1972, which got him grounded.
>
> The grounding was noted in one of the four documents unveiled by CBS -
> which
> were given to the White House, which released them to the rest of the
> media. It
> appears to be an order signed by Killian suspending Bush from flight
> status
> "due to failure to perform to USAF/TexANG standards and failure to meet
> annual physical examination (flight) as ordered."
>
> Handwriting experts hired by many media organizations as well as other
> critics
> contend the document, and possibly all four, are forgeries. However,
> Killian's order is confirmed by two documents that were not part of the
> CBS
> papers. The first is a White House-released letter from the commander of
> the
> 147th Fighter Group, Col. Bobby W. Hodges, to its Texas higher command
> dated
> Sept. 5, 1972, with a subject line of "Suspension From Flying Status."
>
> The letter documents the missed flight physical and the suspension,
> "effective 1 Aug 1972." A Sept. 29 order from the National Guard Bureau
> further confirms the missed physical and the suspension.
>
> On May 26, 1972, Bush asked in writing for reassignment to an Air Reserve
> squadron in Alabama so he could work on the U.S. Senate campaign of
> Republican
> Winton "Red" Blount, a close friend of his influential father. That was
> rejected because Bush was obligated to serve as a Ready Reservist until
> May 26,
> 1974, and was ineligible for assignment to the Air Reserve. About three
> months
> later, on Sept. 5, Bush asked to perform "equivalent duty" with the
> Alabama
> unit from September to November. Killian approved the request a day later.
> The
> orders went through on Sept. 15, and while Bush had missed the Sept. 9-10
> unit
> training assembly, the document noted he could make the next two. Bush's
> Officer Military Record shows an Oct. 1, 1973, discharge from the Texas
> Air
> National Guard and transfer to the Alabama unit.
>
> Another White House-released document shows a total of 56 points Bush
> apparently earned during this 12-month period, but it's awarded in one
> lump
> sum rather than credited for each training period. But this document also
> contains an error, listing Bush's status as "PLT On-Fly" - meaning he
> was on flight status - when he had not been for a year. This, said retired
> Army Lt. Col. Gerald A. Lechliter, who has done an in-depth analysis of
> Bush's pay records (http://www.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/.../lechliter.pdf),
> makes the form's authenticity suspect.
>
> There's also the record of a Jan. 6, 1973, dental exam performed on Bush
> at
> Dannelly Air National Guard Base, Ala. There's nothing that documents why
> Bush, who reportedly returned to Texas after the election, didn't get this
> work done closer to home.
>
> Bush's attendance and participation in weekend drills had been
> meticulously
> recorded up through May 1972. But other than the points record and the
> dental
> exam record, the year following Bush's request for reassignment to Alabama
> is
> a blank.
>
> In a fitness report supplement released by the White House this year, an
> administrative officer wrote, "Not rated for the period 1 May 72 through
> 30
> Apr 73. Report for this period not available for administrative reasons."
>
> In the remarks section, Killian wrote that Bush "has not been observed at
> this unit during the period of report. . He cleared this base on 15 May
> 1972
> and has been performing equivalent training in a non flying status" with
> the
> Alabama unit. Bush, however, was only authorized to be gone from September
> to
> November.
>
> 'Don't remember seeing you'
>
> The same day Barnes spoke with CBS, a new pro-Kerry group, Texans for
> Truth,
> announced it was launching a TV ad campaign that would attack Bush for
> failing
> to perform his duties while temporarily assigned to the Alabama unit.
> While it
> wasn't a new accusation, the ad featured a member of that unit who said
> he'd never met the future president.
>
> "I heard George Bush get up and say, 'I served in the 187th Air National
> Guard in Montgomery, Alabama,'" retired Lt. Col. Robert Mintz said on
> camera. "Really? That was my unit. And I don't remember seeing you there.
> ."
>
> On Sept. 5, Bush formally asked Killian for a discharge from the Texas
> unit so
> he could attend Harvard Business School in Cambridge, Mass. Two weeks
> later,
> Hodges approved the request and honorably discharged Bush,
> administratively
> transferring him to Headquarters, Air Reserve Personnel Center in Denver.
>
> Two months earlier, on June 30, Bush signed a statement promising that if
> he
> left his Texas Ready Reserve unit, "it is my responsibility to locate and
> be
> assigned to another Reserve Forces unit or mobilization augmentation
> position.
> If I fail to do so, I am subject to involuntary order to active duty for
> up to
> 24 months."
>
> There is no record of Bush ever having signed on with a Massachusetts
> Reserve
> unit. In 1999, Dan Bartlett, working for the Bush campaign, told The
> Washington
> Post that Bush had completed his six-year commitment with a Boston unit.
> That
> didn't happen, Bartlett recently told The Boston Globe. "I must have
> misspoke," he said. The following March, Bush was redesignated as an
> "executive support officer." In May, he was placed on inactive status. On
> Nov. 21 - apparently at Bush's written request, according to an undated
> letter sent from Massachusetts and released by the White House in which he
> requests "to discharge from the standby reserve" - he received an
> honorable discharge "from all appointments in the United States Air
> Force."
>
>
> Documents in question
>
> The renewed examination of the Bush record, however, has been somewhat
> obscured
> by the explosion of media interest in the documents CBS displayed on the
> same
> program featuring Barnes.
>
> In a matter of minutes, Internet "bloggers" were raising questions about
> the authenticity of the documents, claiming that that era's typewriters
> could
> not have produced some of the typographical elements in the memos and that
> they
> were computer-generated forgeries. They also said that Killian's signature
> was either forged or copied from actual documents.
>
> Killian's former secretary, Marian Carr Knox, 86, of Houston, has said she
> believed the memos were fake but their content accurately reflected
> Killian's
> opinions.
>
> "I know that I didn't type them," she said in an interview with CBS.
> "However, the information in those is correct."
>
> As of Sept. 16, CBS continued to stand by its reporting.
>
> William H. McMichael covers the Navy from Hampton Roads, Va. Reach him at
> (757)
> 223-0096 or by e-mail at bmcmichael@atpco.com
>
>

Re: GW Bush and the TX ANG (for those interested)
 

Probably an unemployed CBS news writer, just trying to keep his
skills in practice?

Jerry Bransford proclaimed:

> WTF are you posting political crap to this forum??? There are MANY more
> appropriate forums for political BS than this Jeep-orieinted forum.
>
> Jerry
> --
> Jerry Bransford
> PP-ASEL N6TAY
> See the Geezer Jeep at
> http://members.cox.net/jerrypb/
> "Steelgtr62" <steelgtr62@aol.com> wrote in message
> news:20040921174913.27979.00001162@mb-m02.aol.com...
>
>>http://www.airforcetimes.com/story.p...PER-357916.php
>>
>>Issue Date: September 27, 2004
>>
>>Bush's Air Guard stint started well, then faded into mystery
>>
>>By William H. McMichael
>>Times Staff Writer
>>
>>
>>John F. Kerry's service in Vietnam and his postwar testimonials have been
>>targeted all summer by Republican-funded critics and veterans groups - so
[snip]

>

Re: GW Bush and the TX ANG (for those interested)
 

Probably an unemployed CBS news writer, just trying to keep his
skills in practice?

Jerry Bransford proclaimed:

> WTF are you posting political crap to this forum??? There are MANY more
> appropriate forums for political BS than this Jeep-orieinted forum.
>
> Jerry
> --
> Jerry Bransford
> PP-ASEL N6TAY
> See the Geezer Jeep at
> http://members.cox.net/jerrypb/
> "Steelgtr62" <steelgtr62@aol.com> wrote in message
> news:20040921174913.27979.00001162@mb-m02.aol.com...
>
>>http://www.airforcetimes.com/story.p...PER-357916.php
>>
>>Issue Date: September 27, 2004
>>
>>Bush's Air Guard stint started well, then faded into mystery
>>
>>By William H. McMichael
>>Times Staff Writer
>>
>>
>>John F. Kerry's service in Vietnam and his postwar testimonials have been
>>targeted all summer by Republican-funded critics and veterans groups - so
[snip]

>

Re: GW Bush and the TX ANG (for those interested)
 

Probably an unemployed CBS news writer, just trying to keep his
skills in practice?

Jerry Bransford proclaimed:

> WTF are you posting political crap to this forum??? There are MANY more
> appropriate forums for political BS than this Jeep-orieinted forum.
>
> Jerry
> --
> Jerry Bransford
> PP-ASEL N6TAY
> See the Geezer Jeep at
> http://members.cox.net/jerrypb/
> "Steelgtr62" <steelgtr62@aol.com> wrote in message
> news:20040921174913.27979.00001162@mb-m02.aol.com...
>
>>http://www.airforcetimes.com/story.p...PER-357916.php
>>
>>Issue Date: September 27, 2004
>>
>>Bush's Air Guard stint started well, then faded into mystery
>>
>>By William H. McMichael
>>Times Staff Writer
>>
>>
>>John F. Kerry's service in Vietnam and his postwar testimonials have been
>>targeted all summer by Republican-funded critics and veterans groups - so
[snip]

>

Re: GW Bush and the TX ANG (for those interested)
 

Bush wins....get over it....










"Steelgtr62" <steelgtr62@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20040921174913.27979.00001162@mb-m02.aol.com...
> http://www.airforcetimes.com/story.p...PER-357916.php
>
> Issue Date: September 27, 2004
>
> Bush's Air Guard stint started well, then faded into mystery
>
> By William H. McMichael
> Times Staff Writer
>
>