Posted on 05/04/2003 3:51:30 PM PDT by Chi-townChief
Anonymous, a Chicago reader, messages:
"Wasn't that a glorious sight, to see our president land on that aircraft carrier, walking around in that flight suit? There's a real warrior. Boy, and the troops love him. Wasn't that a sight? Also, what about the sight of Democratic hopefuls, stomping their feet, and Bill Clinton hiding somewhere in a closet? Hail to the chief! Hail to the chief! See you, pal."
QT received a number of communications regarding the aircraft carrier photo op, many of them referring to President Bush as a "warrior" or "real warrior," as opposed to former President Bill Clinton, who chose a different method than Bush did to dodge the Vietnam war.
It might be interesting to place the photo-op boosters among you in an enclosed space with the widows and widowers, the mothers and fathers, the sons and daughters, of those who have died in battle for us, and with the soldiers who came back from our wars without a leg or an arm.
Then you could explain to them how a young man who somehow jumped ahead of a long waiting list to join the "Champagne Unit" of the Texas Air National Guard, so called because it contained an unusually high number of the sons of the wealthy and powerful, and then somehow managed to train on an obsolescent jet fighter, guaranteeing that he would not see duty in Vietnam, is a "warrior."
Their response might be quite a sight.
(Excerpt) Read more at suntimes.com ...
I don't know what the story is with the National Guard. I know a few guys who joined in the 60s here in Illinois and they were far from wealthy and/or powerful so the waiting list story may be BS.
I guess that military experience or lack thereof didn't make any difference for Clinton but for President Bush and Dan Quayle back in the 80s, it's all that matters.
I believe that these columnists are trying to set things up for Kerry in case he gets lucky.
Of course, I not sure, I stopped buying the paper since they don't have a desire for a winning ball team.
Like I would tell by democrap co-workers, who were all so "high" on the Algore and his Vietnam "service":
When the U.S. military was training George W. Bush to fly supersonic jet interceptor aircraft, designed to shoot down Soviet nuclear bombers, they were also train Albert Gore how to type.
When George W. Bush was earning his M.B.A. at Harvard Business School, Albert Gore was dropping out of divinty school.
Enough said.
It would be better if favors had not been given for wealthy people, but that was the way of life. The RATS just cannot stand it that their commander in chief was a POS and this one has been brilliant. It eats them up. You can see it on some of the rabid left chatrooms. They think this is their chance to win in 2004.
The leftist RAT bastards were wrong about the war. They are still trying to find something to get on Bush. They think this is important. It was not important to them that Clinton was actually a draft dodger, who lied about receiving his draft and who deceived a Bataan Death March survivor, Col. Eugene Holmes. It was not important that Clinton put in writing his loathing of the military. It was not important that Clinton's utter incompetence cost the lives of brave warriors in Mogadishu.
They need to find a way to descredit what most of the country has seen --- that Bush is an immensely popular and brilliant commander in chief. Sorry, RATS.
Frustrate one liberal a day, that's all we ask.
For what it's worth, before earning his MBA @ Harvard, our beloved GWB graduated from Yale.
That man has 2, count them 2, of this countries most premier schools, one military, one civilian, under his belt.
Watching the event and listening to the speech was one proud historical moment and not just becaue my son is stationed on the Lincoln, but just because what he showed was a genuine warmth and gratitude towards our military personnell. Something that was missing prevuosly.
Here's a couple of paragraphs from the DMN/.......
Records provided to The News by Tom Hail, a historian for the Texas Air National Guard, show that the unit Mr. Bush signed up for was not filled. In mid-1968, the 147th Fighter Interceptor Group, based in Houston, had 156 openings among its authorized staff of 925 military personnel.Of those, 26 openings were for officer slots, such as that filled by Mr. Bush, and 130 were for enlisted men and women. Also, several former Air Force pilots who served in the unit said that they were recruited from elsewhere to fly for the Texas Guard. .........
Mr. Bush said he sought the Guard position on his own, before graduating from Yale University in 1968. He personally met with Col. Walter B. Staudt, commander of the 147th group.
In an interview, Mr. Bush said he walked into Col. Staudt's Houston office and told him he wanted to be a fighter pilot.
"He told me they were looking for pilots," Mr. Bush said. He said he was told that there were five or six flying slots available, and he got one of them.
While Guard slots generally were coveted, pilot positions required superior education, physical fitness and the willingness to spend more than a year in full-time training.
"If somebody like that came along, you'd snatch them up," said the former commander, who retired as a general. "He took no advantage. It wouldn't have made any difference whether his daddy was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff."
Bobby Hodges, the group's operations officer, and others familiar with Guard rules said Mr. Bush made it to the top of the short list of candidates who could pass both the written officer test and a rigorous flight physical to qualify for the three to four annual pilot training "quotas" allotted to the unit.
If W wanted to avoid any military service that would be potentially dangerous, why the HELL would he sign up to fly one of the most dangerous jets? I don't have the numbers handy, but the F102 was a dicey jet to fly, and it killed many men in training alone. In reality, if he had the connections they suggest, he could have easily swung a job as a REMF, say, a journalist.
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