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It is interesting to know that many of the U.S. prisoners of war in the North were pilots. I tend to doubt any national guard pilots served in Vietnam, but you never know where you might wind up should hostilities break out.

Sorry but you are dead wrong. What follows is my letter to the local paper after a Lefty smeared G W as a coward ( actually ALL who entered the guard as cowards).

George Bush entered the Air National Guard and completed pilot training and was assigned to an F 102 squadron. Any military aviation is a dangerous undertaking, in peace or war, with the F 102 notoriously so with 259 of the 875 produced crashing at the cost of 70 dead Air force and Guard pilots. Furthermore contrary to the writer’s assertion many Air Guard pilots ended up in Vietnam. In 1968 the year he volunteered, 11 units were activated for Vietnam service. The unit Bush was assigned to the 147 FIG had pilots in Vietnam at that time, and Bush inquired as to such duty in the “Palace Alert “program, but did not have the required 500 hours. Shortly thereafter the F 102 was withdrawn from Vietnam. It continued in service as a continental defense interceptor. I have personally been on several accident scenes involving Guard aircraft and had to recover the bodies of the aircrew. No one involved in military aviation is a coward or stupid. Only the best and brightest can even hope to fly a fighter. The writer has committed a slander on all those who volunteered for the Guard, and honorably served. Funny, in 92 and 96 when Bill Clinton, a draft dodger ran for president against two real war hero’s military service didn’t seem to matter to these same liberals as a qualification for Commander in Chief.

Hey thanks. That is such great information.

I would think that at some point Bush would use some of this to dismiss the left's attack on this subject.

It was my understanding that nearly all sorties were Navy operations. I had no idea national guard units were involved, let alone some from his unit.

That's good to know. Nice response.

George Bush entered the Air National Guard and completed pilot training and was assigned to an F-102 squadron. Any military aviation is a dangerous undertaking, in peace or war, with the F-102 notoriously so with 259 of the 875 produced crashing at the cost of 70 dead Air force and Guard pilots.

To the best of our knowledge, W did not crash or bail-out of one of those planes did he?? If not he beat the odds:

259/875=30%, 70/259=27%, 70/875=8%.

Let's summarize: 30% of the planes crashed. 27% of the pilots who crashed died. 8% of the total pilots died. Those are terrible odds. Imagine if 30% of the Swift boats were destroyed and 27% of those who served on those boats died. I know its apples to oranges, but IMO (and I was there for a year on CG boats) if the boat and crew had that type of casualty rate, everyone who just survived deserved a medal. Obviously, the odds weren't that bad for our sailors or I would have crapped in my pants the first night in country (as it was, I spent the first night over the rail sick and the engineman on watch continually checked on me to make sure I didn't fall overboard in the monsoon waves!).

In my opinion, anyone who flies fast military planes and has the skills to keep it, himself and those down below safe is worthy of respect and more so in war time. So enough already of this DNC/MSM BS!.