Typewriters can't auto-center:
Posted on 09/10/2004 12:17:51 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
New Documents May Shed Light on Bush Military Record
By Terence Hunt The Associated Press
Published: Sep 9, 2004
WASHINGTON (AP) - New documents unearthed in the midst of the presidential campaign fill in some blanks but raise other questions about the sometimes mysterious and spotty story of President Bush's military service during Vietnam when he won a coveted spot in the Texas Air National Guard and avoided the war.
Reviving issues that have shadowed his political career, the documents show Bush ignored a direct order from a superior officer and lost his status as a Texas Air National Guard pilot more than three decades ago because he failed to meet military performance standards and undergo a required physical examination.
But the authenticity of the memos was questioned Thursday by the son of the late officer who reportedly wrote them. One of the writer's fellow officers and a document expert also said Thursday the documents appear to be forgeries.
Still, the documents marked the second time in days the White House had to backtrack from assertions that all of Bush's records had been released. They also raised the specter that Bush sought favors from higher-ups and that the commander of the Texas Air National Guard wanted to "sugar coat" Bush's record after he was suspended from flying.
Less than two months before the election, the documents turned the spotlight on Bush after weeks of political attacks questioning John Kerry's military service in Vietnam. Overshadowing issues such as jobs and the economy, that controversy raised doubts about Kerry and hurt him in the polls.
Kerry, campaigning in Iowa, refused to talk Thursday about the new Bush documents. "That's for the White House to answer," he said in an Associated Press interview. Presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said, "I think you absolutely are seeing a coordinated attack by John Kerry and his surrogates on the president."
Yet, it was the White House - not Kerry's campaign - that distributed four memos from 1972 and 1973 from Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, now deceased, who was the commander of the 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron in Houston where Bush served. The White House obtained the memos from CBS News, which said it was convinced of their authenticity, and the White House did not question their accuracy. There was no explanation why the Pentagon was unable to find the documents on its own.
The key questions about Bush's service are whether or where he trained in late 1972 and early 1973, why he skipped the required medical exam, and whether he was investigated or punished for skipping the exam and six months' worth of training in 1972.
Bush has adamantly denied that any strings were pulled to get him into the guard. Yet, former Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes, a Democrat who now supports Kerry, has stepped forward to say he helped Bush and the sons of other wealthy families get into the guard so they could avoid serving in Vietnam.
Bush completed basic training in August 1968, and by early 1970 was assigned as a pilot of F-102 interceptors in the 111th Squadron at Ellington Air Force Base. Killian, the squadron commander, ordered Bush in May 1972 to undergo his annual physical, according to the new memos.
Later in May, Killian said in his memo that he'd had conversations with Bush "of how Bush can get out of coming to drill from now through November" because Bush wanted to go to Alabama to work on a political campaign.
Killian wrote that they talked about Bush getting his flight physical and that Bush said he would do it in Alabama if he remained in flight status. But he said Bush said he "may not have the time." The memo said Bush was "talking to someone upstairs" about the Alabama transfer.
The same memo also made clear that Killian was concerned about the fact that the military had spent a substantial amount of money training Bush to fly.
"I advised him of our investment in him and his commitment," he wrote in the memo.
On Aug. 1, 1972, Killian ordered that Bush "be suspended from flight status due to failure to perform to (United States Air Force/Texas Air National Guard) standards and failure to meet annual physical examination (flight) as ordered."
Killian said he wanted a formal inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the flight suspension. No records have surfaced that one was ever conducted.
A year later, in August 1973, Killian wrote a memo that said SUBJECT: CYA.
He said that Walter B. Staudt, the Texas Air National Guard commander, was pressuring one of Bush's superiors who two years earlier had rated Bush an outstanding pilot. Killian said, "I'm having trouble running interference and doing my job." Killian said that Staudt "is pushing to sugar coat" Bush's rating. "Bush wasn't here during rating period and I don't have any feedback from 187th in Alabama. I will not rate."
Democratic Party chairman Terry McAuliffe said, "George W. Bush's cover story on his National Guard service is rapidly unraveling. ... George W. Bush needs to answer why he regularly misled the American people about his time in the Guard and who applied political pressure on his behalf to have his performance reviews 'sugarcoated'"
White House communications director Dan Bartlett said Bush did not take the physical because he was not going to be in a flying capacity in Alabama. "Those who are trying to read the mind of a person dead 20 years are stretching at best. The president at every turn did what he was told to do."
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On the Web:
http://wid.ap.org/documents/bush/040908xfer.pdf
AP-ES-09-09-04 2255EDT
Some guy gave the memos to the DNC, DNC gave the memos to Kerry Campaign, Kerry Campaign gave memos to CBS and CBS gave Memos to WH. Is that about right?
Some RATS now say original guy was a Rove operative?
It's going to be a bumpy ride.
Doesn't wash. It's Kerry -- not Bush -- who's trailing in polls. Only a desperate campaign would try to pull something like this off.
Typewriters can't auto-center:
The power of hatred.
In fact, that fairy tale doesn't even factor in, since nobody denies that the kerry campaign handed them off to CBS and Rather who aired the story without investigating or authenticating, even though they initially lied about "throughly investigating" and consulting "experts." Nobody in the country would even be talking about any of this if those things hadn't been done. Rathergate is all their baby.
Good point.
| Bush Piloted Guard Trainers Before He Quit WASHINGTON (AP) -- George W. Bush began flying a two-seat training jet more frequently and twice required multiple attempts to land a one-seat fighter in the weeks just before he quit flying for the Texas Air National Guard in 1972, his pilot logs show. The logs show Bush flew nine times in T-33 trainers in February and March 1972, including eight times in one week and four of those only as a co-pilot. Bush, then a first lieutenant, flew in T-33s only twice in the previous six months and three times in the year ending July 31, 1971. The records also show Bush required two passes to land an F-102A fighter on March 12 and April 10, 1972. His last flight as an Air National Guard pilot was on April 16. Meanwhile, questions were raised Thursday about the authenticity of newly unearthed memos purporting to have been written by one of Bush's commanders in 1972 and 1973. The memos, which were publicized by CBS News on its "60 Minutes" program, say Bush ignored a direct order from a superior officer and lost his status as a Guard pilot because he failed to meet military performance standards and undergo a required physical exam.
The network defended the memos, saying its experts who examined the memos concluded they were authentic documents produced by Lt. Col. Jerry Killian. But Killian's son, one of Killian's fellow officers and an independent document examiner questioned the memos Gary Killian, who served in the Guard with his father and retired as a captain in 1991, said he doubted his father would have written an unsigned memo which said there was pressure to "sugar coat" Bush's performance review. "It just wouldn't happen," he said. "No officer in his right mind would write a memo like that." The personnel chief in Killian's unit at the time also said he believes the documents are fake. "They looked to me like forgeries," said Rufus Martin. "I don't think Killian would do that, and I knew him for 17 years." Killian died in 1984. Independent document examiner Sandra Ramsey Lines said the memos looked like they had been produced on a computer using Microsoft Word software. Lines, a document expert and fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, pointed to a superscript - a smaller, raised "th" in "111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron" - as evidence indicating forgery. Microsoft Word automatically inserts superscripts in the same style as the two on the memos obtained by CBS, she said. "I'm virtually certain these were computer generated," Lines said after reviewing copies of the documents at her office in Paradise Valley, Ariz. She produced a nearly identical document using her computer's Microsoft Word software. The Defense Department released Bush's pilot logs this week under pressure from a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by The Associated Press. The logs do not explain why Bush was flying T-33s or why he twice needed multiple approaches to make landings. White House spokesman Trent Duffy said Thursday said he had no information on the reasons behind the multiple-approach landings or the surge in training-jet flights. "He did his training and was honorably discharged," Duffy said. Former Air National Guard officials contacted by the AP said there could be reasons for the trainer flights and multiple-approach landings which have nothing to do with Bush's pilot skills. Bush could have flown T-33s so many times because his unit did not have enough F-102A jets available that week, for example, said retired Maj. Gen. Don Shepperd a former head of the Air National Guard. Another former Air National Guard chief, retired Maj. Gen. Paul A. Weaver, said he saw nothing unusual about Bush making more than one landing attempt. "It doesn't mean anything to have multiple approaches," Weaver said. Bush's Vietnam-era Air National Guard service became a focus of Democratic criticism this week amid a flurry of new reports about his activities. Democrats say Bush shirked his National Guard duties, a claim Bush denies. Republican critics have accused Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam combat veteran, of fabricating the incidents which led to his five medals. Bush joined the Texas Air National Guard in 1968, serving more than a year on active Air Force duty while being trained to fly F-102A jets. He was honorably discharged from the Guard in October 1973 and left the Air Force Reserves in May 1974. The first four months of 1972 are at the beginning of a controversial period in Bush's Guard service. After taking his last flight in April 1972, Bush went for six months without showing up for any training drills. In September 1972 he received permission to transfer to an Alabama Guard unit so he could work on a political campaign there. That May, Bush also skipped a required yearly medical examination. In response, his commanders grounded Bush on Aug. 1, 1972. Bush's pilot logs showed regular training in the F-102A until Feb. 9, 1972, when he flew 1.4 hours as the pilot of a T-33. After seven more flights in the F-102A, Bush made eight more T-33 flights between March 9 and March 15, including the four as co-pilot. He flew an F-102A on March 12 and eight more times in April 1972. © 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
The Leftists would get away with it if it wasn't for the new media.
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That's right. They got away with it for years. During the VN War, Cronkite lied in his teeth night after night and was never called on it, because the old media completely controlled the microphone. Dan Rather thinks he can still get away with it. But he just got another reminder that times have changed. I doubt he'll learn much from this. Creeps like him believe they have a right to defraud the public any time they want.
'White House communications director Dan Bartlett said Bush did not take the physical because he was not going to be in a flying capacity in Alabama. "Those who are trying to read the mind of a person dead 20 years are stretching at best. The president at every turn did what he was told to do."'
I said it before and I'll say it again. Refusing to take a flight physical in the reserves/guard is not a prosecutable offense. It merely means one loses his/her qualification to fly. The 'orders' are not legally binding in the sense that they fall under the UCMJ. There is no dereliction of duty implicit in those actions.
Even on active duty, a person is not required to take a flight physical if he has chosen to give up his wings.
As for the CO's not wanting to rate an officer who has been drilling elsewhere, in the Navy we would call it an "NOB" (not observed) fitrep. They are given all the time. If Bush got a fitrep from his Alabama unit he wouldn't need one from Texas. And if he didn't get one at all, that's a problem only if he was hoping to get promoted. If he was leaving the service, missing a fitrep is absolutely meaningless.
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