Memories place Bush in Alabama if records don't ["Why are you still whipping this dead horse?"]

Atlanta Journal Constitution ^ | 2.14.04

[ambrose]

Memories place Bush in Alabama if records don't

By DAVE HIRSCHMAN in Montgomery , MONI BASU in Atlanta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 02/13/04

The search for proof that young Lt. George W. Bush worked weekends at an Air Force base in Montgomery, 32 years ago has taken on a strange, forensic quality.
 

Family photo (ENLARGE)
Lt. Col. John "Bill" Calhoun said he saw the future president each drill period when both men were serving in the National Guard in Montgomery.
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Dusty dental records and copies of old pay stubs provided by the White House are the only hard evidence that the future president, then 26, was ever there. But journalists have interviewed scores of Alabama Air National Guard pilots, navigators and mechanics from the period and have found few, if any, who can remember seeing him there — if they can remember at all.
 
One who said he does remember is Roswell businessman John Calhoun, 69. A retired officer of the Alabama Air National Guard and co-owner of Industrial Coatings Alliance Group, Calhoun stepped forward this week to say he could vouch for the president's claims that he served with a Montgomery guard unit to fulfill his military obligation. Bush moved to Alabama to work on the unsuccessful 1972 U.S. Senate campaign of Winton "Red" Blount Jr.
 
"The truth is George Bush came to Alabama. He asked for weekend drills with us. He was assigned to me," said Calhoun, who was in Florida on Friday for this weekend's Daytona 500 festivities.
 
Calhoun said he saw Bush sign in at the 187th Tactical Reconnaissance Group in Montgomery eight to 10 times for roughly eight hours at a time from May to October 1972.
 
"He showed up. He sat in my office. He signed in," Calhoun said. "He was very determined to be there. He was in uniform and he did what he was supposed to do."
 
Calhoun recalled he thought the young lieutenant was "fairly low key" though Bush told him he had been "working day and night" on Blount's Senate campaign. Calhoun asked Bush if he had political ambition. "He said, 'I don't know. Maybe.' "
 
Calhoun said he sometimes grabbed a sandwich with Bush in the snack bar. Other times, the young pilot would sit on a couch and read flight magazines and training manuals.
 
The last time he saw Bush was in Calhoun's office in 1972.
 
"I never talked to George Bush since the last day he was in my office," said Calhoun, who voted for Bush in 2000. "And I have never spoken to anyone in the White House about it."
 
When the allegations that Bush had skipped National Guard duty surfaced in 2000, Calhoun said, he tried to contact Bush campaign officials but was told "it wasn't a issue."
 
This time, Calhoun said, he couldn't remain silent any longer. "I got real upset so I decided to talk. The truth needed to be out. This is damaging our president and hurting the military."
 
He said he tried to contact the White House, which didn't return his message but passed the tip along to a reporter at The Washington Post.
 
The dates Calhoun said he saw Bush at the air base do not correspond with the dates on payroll records released by the White House this week to show that Bush attended training in Alabama. The White House could offer no explanation Friday.
 
"You would have to talk to Mr. Calhoun. I do not know him," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said when asked about the discrepancy.
 
The 187th's former commander, retired Brig. Gen. William Turnipseed, said he knew Calhoun and that he wasn't "the kind of guy who would make up stories."
 
But the general's own memory apparently isn't so sound. In 2000, Turnipseed told The Boston Globe that he would have remembered Bush had he reported for duty — and that he didn't recall seeing the young pilot.
 
On Friday, he said, "I don't even remember if I was there."
 
"All I was trying to do is tell the truth about it. I'm beginning to find out my memory is not any good anymore. I'm 75 years old and getting Alzheimer's," Turnipseed said.
 
The question of whether Bush shirked military duties first arose during his 1994 campaign for governor of Texas. In this election year, comparisons between Bush's part-time military service and the record of Democratic front-runner Sen. John Kerry, who was wounded three times in Vietnam, are likely to gain even more attention as November draws closer.
 
One fact both sides agree on is that Bush's reason for being in Montgomery in the late summer and early fall of 1972 was Blount's Senate campaign.
 
The Montgomery scion and close friend of Bush's father had earned a fortune in construction, building the Superdome in New Orleans, among other projects, and serving as postmaster general in the Nixon administration. He died in 2002 at age 81.
 
Bush joined Blount's quixotic 1972 quest to unseat Democratic Sen. John Sparkman, a popular incumbent who had been a major force in Alabama politics for decades. Bush rented a downtown apartment a few blocks from Blount's election headquarters and went to work.
 
"We drove all over the state together," said Jean Sullivan of Selma, then a leader in Alabama's fledgling Republican party. "He was there as a friend to help, and he just worked his brains out. That young man worked every day, morning until night. He was out there talking to people in every county in Alabama."
 
Bush was a frequent guest at Blount's home, and Blount sought him out as a tennis partner in doubles matches.
 
Bob Ingram, a veteran Alabama political reporter, said he never saw Bush working on Blount's election campaign, but he faced him twice across a tennis net.
 
"Red Blount invited me to play tennis twice that year — and both times he had young George Bush on his side," Ingram said.
 
Former Montgomery Mayor Emory Folmar, an aide in 1972 to Sen. Sparkman, said he remembers Blount talking about Bush but he never met him.
 
Folmar, mayor from 1977 until 1999, switched to the GOP in 1975. He said journalists call him every time Bush runs for office to ask questions about the poorly recorded year the young man spent in Alabama.
 
"This thing has been investigated ad nauseam," Folmar said. "Why are you still whipping this dead horse?"
 
Staff writer Bob Dart contributed to this article.
 
Dave Hirschman can be reached at dhirschman@ajc.com and Moni Basu can be reached at mbasu@ajc.com.
 

[ambrose]

Folmar, mayor from 1977 until 1999, switched to the GOP in 1975. He said journalists call him every time Bush runs for office to ask questions about the poorly recorded year the young man spent in Alabama.

"This thing has been investigated ad nauseam," Folmar said. "Why are you still whipping this dead horse?"

[ambrose]

Turnipseed ping.

[MamaLucci]

"Why are you still whipping this dead horse?"

To keep the democrats "dead horse" out of the headlines?

[onyx]

BOOKMARKED.

[I. M. Trenchant]

Was there any indication from McClellan that GWB has a recollection of meeting Calhoun ? One would assume he might if they met in Calhoun's office.

[SolidSupplySide]

Bob Ingram, a veteran Alabama political reporter, said he never saw Bush working on Blount's election campaign, but he faced him twice across a tennis net.

NEW SCANDAL!!!!!

Did Bush ever work on the Blount campaign when he was in Alabama? After all, we have a witness who says he never saw Bush work on the campaign.

[JimRed]

"Why are you still whipping this dead horse?"

'Cause they've got nothing else.

[Republican Wildcat]

bttt

[Republican Wildcat]

bttt

[Republican Wildcat]

bttt

[Texasforever]

This backs it up

Former Dannelly worker: Bush not AWOL

By Eric Fleischauer
DAILY Staff Writer
eric@decaturdaily.com · 340-2435

Retired Master Sgt. James Copeland does not care so much whether people think President Bush went absent without leave in 1972, but one thing he hears bothers him plenty.

"Maybe the Bush family was well known in Texas, but we didn't know who he was here. He was just another guy in a flight jacket," Copeland said Sunday.

Copeland, who lives in Hartselle, retired from the Air Force on Jan. 31, 1980. He was the disbursement accounting supervisor, a full-time position, for Dannelly Air National Guard Base in Montgomery from Oct. 28, 1971, to Oct. 27, 1975. His office was less than 100 yards from the hangar where Bush performed drills.

Rumors say Bush went AWOL while assisting Winton "Red" Blount in an unsuccessful campaign for U.S. Senate focus on 1972 and 1973.

Copeland, 65, remembers meeting Bush on two occasions. He does not remember the precise dates. On one occasion, Copeland said, Bush and Lt. Col. John "Bill" Calhoun came to Copeland's office with a question about Bush's pay. Copeland is not sure, but he believes the question had to do with where to mail Bush's checks.

Bush was never a member of the Alabama National Guard, he just did his drills here. For that reason, Copeland thinks he referred the pay question to the paymaster for the Texas National Guard.