Posted on 05/06/2003 1:41:31 PM PDT by areafiftyone
So much for that myth--the cynical distortion that has become conventional wisdom in many circles. During the presidential campaign of 2000, it started going around that Texas Gov. George W. Bush, then the leading Republican candidate, had significant gaps in his military record.
Specifically, that Bush failed to report for duty for an entire year toward the end of his hitch with the Texas Air National Guard.
The short version: In May 1968 the silver-spoon son of a U.S. congressman jumped to the top of a long waiting list despite mediocre scores on his pilot-aptitude test and was allowed to enlist in the Guard, a common way to avoid being drafted into combat in Vietnam.
In May 1972 he sought a transfer from Houston, where he flew F-102s on weekends, to a unit in Montgomery, Ala. There, he worked on the U.S. Senate campaign of a friend of his father's and, records indicate, blew off his military obligations.
Bush failed to take his annual flight physical in 1972 so Guard officials grounded him, the story went. He never flew again and received an early discharge to go to graduate school. His final officer-efficiency report from May 1973 noted only that supervisors hadn't seen him or heard from him.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
RETCH **hork** urk urk urk urk
When I was in the Guard, I have seen people get out of training for things as frivolous as their high school prom. Sometimes they made up for it during the weeks following, or sometimes it just meant they wouldn't be paid for that month. I was let out of drill once or twice by the first E-6 above me - the Lieutenant, Captain, etc. above me never even knew I was gone (there's plenty of E-1s, you know!).
It's probably a bad thing, but if you talk to supervisors ahead of time and you are not a leader (as a new pilot Bush would not have been in a leadership position) it is not a big deal at all to get out of drill with a lot of units out there. So I don't think Bush gives the impression of being the most dedicated Guardsman ever, but (1) flying those jets at all was a lot more dangerous than anything Al Gore did in Vietnam; (2) the training period for learning to fly is a year to start -- longer than the 6 month "tour" Gore spent in 'Nam; (3) being a Guard member at all is a lot more than most citizens ever do in terms of serving the country.
You know Bush has scored when the lefties pull out an old chestnut like this!
One word: Gravitas.
President Bush has long since proved himself a leader, both politically and as Commander-in-Chief and his popularity with the military is clear and unmistakable, as we saw last week. Liberal columnists attempts to revive the 'AWOL' issue won't resonate with the public because it's not only factually incorrect but much more importantly, irrelevant to most Americans. When Democrats poo-pooed Clintons draft evasion they made themselves vulnerable when attacking Bush's admittedly thin service record and so, the attack goes nowhere. This is simply DU stuff that gives some liberals wet pants but bores everyone else. President Bush is well established as a leader and the Dems are very likely toast in 2004. This kind of wishful-thinking attack from the left will always be stillborn - and rightfully so.
I also question why they never state he was given an Honorable Discharge. And wasn't his type of plane out of commision by the time this gap in service happened?
It seems to me (and yes I am making excuses for our President) that the people in the Guards probably had nothing for him to do and so looked the other way.
Among the questions Bush had to answer on his application forms was whether he wanted to go overseas. Bush checked the box that said: "do not volunteer."
Bush said in an interview that he did not recall checking the box. Two weeks later, his office provided a statement from a former, state-level Air Guard personnel officer, asserting that since Bush "was applying for a specific position with the 147th Fighter Group, it would have been inappropriate for him to have volunteered for an overseas assignment and he probably was so advised by the military personnel clerk assisting him in completing the form."
During a second interview, Bush himself raised the issue. "Had my unit been called up, I'd have gone . . . to Vietnam," Bush said. "I was prepared to go." But there was no chance Bush's unit would be ordered overseas. Bush says that toward the end of his training in 1970, he tried to volunteer for overseas duty, asking a commander to put his name on the list for a "Palace Alert" program, which dispatched qualified F-102 pilots in the Guard to the Europe and the Far East, occasionally to Vietnam, on three- to six-month assignments.
He was turned down on the spot. "I did [ask] – and I was told, 'You're not going,' " Bush said. Only pilots with extensive flying time – at the outset, 1,000 hours were required – were sent overseas under the voluntary program. The Air Force, moreover, was retiring the aging F-102s and had ordered all overseas F-102 units closed down as of June 30, 1970.
After basic training at Lackland and his commissioning as a second lieutenant in 1968, Bush got what amounted to a two-month-plus vacation that enabled him to head to Florida to work for a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, Edward J. Gurney. Put on inactive duty status, Bush arrived in early September and stayed through Election Day, riding the press plane, handing out releases, and making sure traveling reporters woke up in time. He occasionally returned to Houston for weekend Guard duty.
Bush graduated from Combat Crew Training School on June 23, 1970, having fulfilled his two years of active duty. But he still flew the F-102 Delta Daggers a few times a month; his unit kept two of the fighters, fully armed, on round-the-clock alert and needed the pilots to man them.
To start at Harvard, Bush needed early release from Guard duty in Texas, and he got it easily, about eight months short of a full six years. A Bush spokesman, Dan Bartlett, said early departures were quite common and, in Bush's case, appropriate because his unit had phased out the F-102s.
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