Yes!
1 Full Legislative Day Left Until The AWB Expires
Posted on 09/10/2004 7:06:51 PM PDT by ambrose
Posted on Fri, Sep. 10, 2004
Man named in Bush memo left Guard before document was written
BY PETE SLOVER
The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN, Texas - (KRT) - The man named in a disputed memo as exerting pressure to "sugar coat" President Bush's military record left the Texas Air National Guard a year and a half before the memo was supposedly written, his own service record shows.
An order obtained by The Dallas Morning News shows that Col. Walter "Buck" Staudt was honorably discharged on March 1, 1972. CBS News reported this week that a memo in which Staudt was described as interfering with officers' negative evaluations of Bush's service, was dated Aug. 18, 1973.
That added to mounting questions about the authenticity of documents that seem to suggest Bush sought special favors and did not fulfill his service.
Staudt, who lives in New Braunfels, Texas, did not return calls seeking comment. His discharge paper was among a packet of documents obtained by The Dallas Morning News from official sources during 1999 research into Bush's Guard record.
A CBS staffer stood by the story, suggesting that Staudt could have continued to exert influence over Guard officials. But a former high-ranking Guard official disputed that, saying retirement would have left Staudt powerless over remaining officials.
The authenticity of the memo and three others included in Wednesday's "60 Minutes" report came in for heavy criticism Friday, prompting an unusual on-air defense of the original work. Experts on typography said they appeared to have been computer-drafted on equipment not available in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
And the family of the officer who supposedly wrote them, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, who died in 1984, said it wasn't his nature to keep detailed personal notes.
In its network news broadcast Friday, CBS said the documents were supported by both unnamed witnesses and others, including document examiners.
Earlier, CBS anchor Dan Rather told The Dallas Morning News that he had heard nothing to make him question the legitimacy of the memos. He attributed the backlash to partisan politics and competitive journalism.
"This story is true. The questions we raised about then-Lieutenant Bush's National Guard service are serious and legitimate," he said, expressing confidence the memos are authentic. "Until and unless someone shows me definitive proof that they are not, I don't see any reason to carry on a conversation with the professional rumor mill."
The interview concluded before The Dallas Morning News determined the date of Staudt's departure, so that issue was not included. But a CBS staffer with extensive knowledge of the story said later that the departure doesn't derail the story.
"From what we've learned, Staudt remained very active after he retired," the staffer said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "He was a very bullying type, and that could have continued."
In the "60 Minutes" report, Rather said of the memo's contents: "Killian says Col. Buck Staudt, the man in charge of the Texas Air National Guard, is putting on pressure to `sugar coat' an evaluation of Lt. Bush."
Staudt was the person Bush initially contacted about Guard service, and he was the group commander at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston when Bush arrived there to fly an F-102 jet. He later transferred to Austin, where he served as the chief of staff for the Air National Guard.
In the disputed memo, Killian supposedly wrote "(another officer) gave me a message today from group regarding Bush's (evaluation) and Staudt is pushing to sugar coat it."
It continues: "Austin is not happy either."
The CBS staffer said that the memo appears to recognize that Staudt has retired, since it differentiates between his displeasure and that of Austin, where he served his final Guard stint.
But another Texas Air National Guard official who served in that period said the memo appears to wrongly associate Staudt with his group command in Houston, and - based on that mistake - the memo distinguishes his views from that of the Austin Guard headquarters.
Retired Col. Earl Lively, who was director of Air National Guard operations for the state headquarters during 1972 and 1973 said Staudt "wasn't on the scene" after retirement, and that CBS' remote-bullying thesis makes no sense.
"He couldn't bully them. He wasn't in the Guard," Lively said. "He couldn't affect their promotions. Once you're gone from the Guard, you don't have any authority."
The report about the memos originally appeared to stir anew longstanding questions about Bush's Guard service, including whether he defied a direct order to take a physical exam, and whether his suspension from flying was partly for failure to meet military performance standards.
The campaign of Bush's Democratic rival, John Kerry, stood mostly mum, saying Bush should answer all questions about his service. Earlier this year, though, Kerry aides raised the exact points the memo seemed to address.
Bush has not commented publicly about the CBS report, and aides say his honorable discharge proves he fulfilled his obligations.
But the White House, which contends that all known records of Bush's service have been released, also took the unusual step of distributing the CBS memos to reporters the night of the broadcast.
"We don't know whether the (CBS) documents were fabricated or are authentic," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Friday.
But this can't be! Dan Blather (soon to be retired) has assured us that his story and supporting evidence are true.
This joker is going to have to be pried from under his desk while sucking his thumb before this is all said and done.
>Another poster said that the entire letterhead was a fake. He >said they didn't put P O boxes on letterheads
Not only that, but if you look at the two lines, they don't match up. Anyone who is proficient on the typewriter knows that the letters line up directly above each other, but in some cases the numbers and letters above the other line is in between the letters below. That is the center function on Word. Can't happen on a typewriter unless it is an electric on with half space capability and the one I used in 1989 didn't have that. Not unless they had the mac daddy typewriter and I don't know anything in the military being top of the line.
To me this is as damning a piece of evidence as any other. It alone would point to forgery, add in all the other and this is a slam dunk.
Only an ignorant political hack would say something like this. More evidence that this story is witness to rampant 20/30-something ignorami run amok.
"Pay no attention to the retired Colonel behind the curtain".
EXACTLY! That's probably why all the protest earlier in this thread about it being in Breaking News. Gotta keep this hidden, you see...
Precisely, as I have raised on other threads.
One wouldn't want to confuse expert forgers with desperate political hacks, but how does one explaing CBS? This is such a strange story.
In KerryLand, the man left before he left.
bump
Actually I found both. Seem to be same document, was changed from an Air Force Reg AFR to Air Force manual at some point. But it does look like it existed in 1970's as AFM 35-13.
Here is AFM 35-13 reference in Special Orders from 1970 for 6994th SS
Here is AFR 35-13 in special Orders from 1954 for 7551st PSS.
Notice that these are good examples of how Special Orders are created. This format is still in use for group Orders today.
AFR/AFM 35-13 looks to have had something to do with SPecial Orders, not sure how it would pertain to the "memo" Orders in the Bush Docs.
I now want to find a copy of AFM 35-13 and find out EXACTLY what paragraph 2-10 says.
Thanks for expanding on the compilation. You added one that I was going to raise (reference to typist and CC's). Let's Roll!
That pic is a fake! A Potemkin Titanic, no less. Dang.
Yes!
1 Full Legislative Day Left Until The AWB Expires
Spoken like a true Leftie. Competition bad. Blather probably never recovered psychologically from his failures in grade/high school.
21 - Bush's grade would "normally" be abbreviated "1Lt" not "1st Lt"
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A glorious list, Southhack, and an immense help!
I have to point out one tiny error, though. Someone pointed out on another thread that "1st Lt" was acceptable in the NG back then so I looked through Bush's documents and found one where he did sign that way. This is Bush's own request for discharge.
http://users.cis.net/coldfeet/doc27.gif
AFR 35013 was replaced 10/1/1990 by AFI 36-2605
Found no reference to AFM 35-13 in Obsolete search
That said -- AFI 36-2605 is AIR FORCE MILITARY PERSONNEL TESTING SYSTEM and has to do with procedures for administering and protecting Controlled TESTING MATERIAL for promotion or performance testing of Air Force Personnel.
Doesn't mean that AFM 35-13 didn't exist or wasn't a different doc in 1972, but the last version of AFR 35-13 had to do with Testing procedures, not Flight Physicals. And there are no toher references on the AF Pub site for AFR 35-13 or AFM 35-13.
As an aside, I checked AFR 35-10 MILITARY STANDARDS (which would have existed in 1972), it cross checked to AFI 36-2903 MILITARY STANDARDS, which is the Doc we use today.
"Blather probably never recovered psychologically from his failures in grade/high school."
Potty training?
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