Posted on 09/20/2004 5:28:26 AM PDT by JaguarXKE
AUSTIN, Texas -- When George W. Bush joined the Texas Air National Guard in 1968, there was little chance he would ever see Vietnam from the cockpit of his F-102 Delta Dagger jet fighter.
When the plane was in demand overseas, Bush was not yet qualified to fly it. By the time he passed his final combat flight test in June 1970, the Air Force was pulling the jets out of Southeast Asia.
Bush, the Texas governor and presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said in his autobiography that he and a friend, Fred Bailey, tried to join the Palace Alert program that rotated National Guard pilots into Vietnam. A colonel told them only a few more pilots would go and "Fred and I had not logged enough hours to participate," Bush wrote.
Retired Col. Maury Udell, who trained Bush to fly the F-102, has no doubt his pupil was willing to go to Vietnam.Udell agreed that Bush was too inexperienced for Palace Alert, but he said the young man did become a good fighter pilot. "George got really good in air-to-air combat," he said.
Palace Alert, as mentioned by several othger posters here, was the program by which Guard pilots were rotated through Vietnam (among other assignements). Bush did in fact volunteer for the program, was turned down on the basis of insufficient flying time, he applied for a waiver, but by that time the F-102,designed specifically as a high-speed, high altitude interceptor, a type effectively without a practical role in Vietnam. Having neither guns nor external pylons suitable for bombs or air-to-ground rocketsm nor readilly fittable with extended-range/loiter fuel tanks, it simply wasn't the right tool for any job there, and despite experiments to better suit the plane to the conditions which applied, no practical solution was found and by the time Bish applied for the waiver, the type had been withdrawn from the operational theater. As the end of Bush's obligation approached, the obsolescent F-102 already was being phased out of both the Active Airforce and the Air Guard. Palace Guard is a program - still in effect, I believe - which deals with early separation from The Guard.
An interesting sidelight - the Delta-Winged Convair F-102, the plane Bush flew, was among contemporary types second behind the Stub-Winged Lockheed F-104 in number of accidents and accidents involving crew fatality - it was at the time one of the most dangerous planes to fly. Further useless and off-topic trivia, the U-2 spyplane essentially was a variant of the F-104.
Thanks for your input. The frustrating thing about this whole ANG issue is that the president himself hasn't discussed this in full, and neither have the White House press people. I guess its up to the Freepers to put the pieces together and alert the media.
But, but, Ben Barnes helped get him in. And Dan Rather said so. How can this be?
Well, I see I shoulda proofread that for typos and sentence fragments, but I'm sure you get the gist. Sorry for the sloppiness.
When I was in college, I was fascinated by the Martin Scorcese movie, Goodfellas and I went to the library to research some of the actual robberies that were shown in the movie using microfiche of local New York newspapers.
During my research, I was fascinated by all of the old advertising.
Unfortunately, I do not have the time go to the library and do research on whether there was actual advertising by TANG for pilots in the early 70's, but perhaps some enterprising Texas Freeper could take a day and do some research. This would put the final nail in the coffin regarding this issue.Just a thought
Who is the only major-party presidential nominee to volunteer for Swift boat service, because at that time, they were not delployed to hazardous locations?
yeah, I mean, it's not like he was working the carnival circuit as a grenade juggler.
Well, possibly due to the fact that the F-104 "Lawn Dart" was a well known widow-maker. The Germans lost quite a few pilots in those things. It's a neat looking century fighter though.
Good stuff. Thanks. Was Udell supposed to be the Colonel that Bush approached?
"I don't know why we keep stirring this cauldron. We won this battle. It's over. Forget about it. Throwing out new stuff is just going to muddy the waters."
This quote looks familiar....is this the quote you always use when there is a vindication of Bush thread going around??
The draft lottery for Edwards' birth year (1953) was performed on 2/2/72. So while he might have had a student deferment for one term (Nixon canceled them in 12/70?), he could not be called up until 1973. The last men to be drafted were those born in 1952, #85 and less.
Just out of curiousity, what should Bush say when a reporter asks him if he volunteered for Vietnam, as this Col. claims? Why are we diverting attention from Rathergate by changing the subject?
Nice to see the good ol' FOX network finally doing some digging on this story.
Bush's volunteering for Nam is the same thing as Rathergate? I don't follow.
Bush will tell the truth, which is that he did not volunteer for Nam. How does raising erroneous speculation that Bush may have volunteered for Nam help his candidacy?
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