[ketsu]

All of this is meaningless to the dicussion. But here you go anyway:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/wh2000/stories/bush072899.htm

It was May 27, 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War. Bush was 12 days away from losing his student deferment from the draft at a time when Americans were dying in combat at the rate of 350 a week. The unit Bush wanted to join offered him the chance to fulfill his military commitment at a base in Texas. It was seen as an escape route from Vietnam by many men his age, and usually had a long waiting list. Bush had scored only 25 percent on a "pilot aptitude" test, the lowest acceptable grade. But his father was then a congressman from Houston, and the commanders of the Texas Guard clearly had an appreciation of politics.

[SampleMan]

Quoting the Washington Post, what you don’t have any documents from CBS?

[tiger-one]

Do you work at Kinkos in Abilene TX? You know the place Bush’s phony NG letters were sent from?

[Kaslin]

I notist the link is from the Washington Compost.

nuff said. Now go back to DU

[A. Pole]

Get ready, Bushbots are coming to get you.

[Petronski]

Now you’re quoting WaPo smears on President Bush?

Despicable.

[kabar]

Seems you have bought into the WP/CBS political propaganda on Bush’s NG service. Flying a high performance jet fighter is not exactly the safest way to “avoid the draft.”

[GovernmentIsTheProblem]

“It was seen as an escape route from Vietnam by many men his age, and usually had a long waiting list. Bush had scored only 25 percent on a “pilot aptitude” test, the lowest acceptable grade. But his father was then a congressman from Houston, and the commanders of the Texas Guard clearly had an appreciation of politics.”

BS

There were other factors taken into account as well, such as physical exam and leadership qualities. He obviously excels at both.

Plus Bush DID volunteer to serve in Vietnam. The document is floating around out there. It’s been posted to FR. It was called the “Palace Alert” program, but he was never sent because he flew air-to-air F-102 and there was air superiority over Vietnam for the rest of his stint.

I’m not Bush’s biggest fan, but I will defend him against mendacious lies.

[CyberAnt]

Your story .. ROTFLOL!!!

[lepton]

It was seen as an escape route from Vietnam by many men his age, and usually had a long waiting list.

Falsehoods in just that sentence:

1)"It" is the National Guard in general, but units varied in particular. Not taking the particular is deceitful.

2) In particular, at the time GWBush volunteered, the unit had pilots rotating to Vietnam. The position he applied with required not just a couple of months of training over a summer, but roughly two years of service. Once the point in trainging occured where actual flights began, it became a fairly dangerous occupation, as per year roughly 2% of all pilots of his plane died each year in crashes unrelated to combat...plus those in combat.

At the time of his volunteering there was no waiting list at all for pilots in his unit. There was a shortage, and his unit was not able to fill all slots.

[calcowgirl]

Wrong, wrong, wrong...

Man who swore Bush into Air Guard speaks out

Retired Colonel: Bush Volunteered for Vietnam