Posted on 09/17/2004 2:24:56 PM PDT by fidelio
BC-Bush-Guard Records, 1st Ld,340
URGENT
Newly released guard records contain letter from President Bush's father
Eds: ADDS 3 grafs
By MATT KELLEY
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - A packet of Texas Air National Guard records newly released Friday showed that the commanding officer of President Bush's basic training unit took a special interest in him as a trainee and wrote to his father to praise his son.
Bush's father, then a congressman from Texas, said in reply to the commander, "That a major general in the Air Force would take interest in a brand new Air Force trainee made a big impression on me."
Bush went on to say that his son "will be a gung ho member" of the Air Force and that Air Force instructors had "helped awaken the very best instincts in my son."
The letter and other material were the latest in a stream of documents released about Bush's service three decades ago during the Vietnam War, when Bush's critics say he got preferential treatment as the son of a congressman and U.N. ambassador. Critics have also questioned why Bush skipped a required medical examination in 1972 and failed to show up for drills during a six-month period that year.
The White House has said repeatedly that all of Bush's Guard records have been disclosed, only to be embarrassed when new documents have turned up. The long-running story took an unusual turn when CBS uncovered documents purportedly showing that Bush refused orders to take a physical examination in 1972 - but then the authenticity of the documents came under doubt.
In addition to the letter from Bush's father, the latest documents contain news releases that the Texas Air National Guard sent to Houston newspapers in 1970 about young Bush, then a second lieutenant and new pilot. "George Bush is one member of the younger generation who doesn't get his kicks from pot or hashish or speed," the news release said. "Oh, he gets high, all right, but not from narcotics."
Three decades later, a new book by Kitty Kelley has alleged that Bush used cocaine while he was a student at Yale University and later at Camp David while his father was president.
"that is a news release from the 1970s"
you are really on to something! the Houston papers are STONEWALLING and HIDING Bush documents! Why haven't they come forward with this! They must have been pressured by BG Staudt! Before and after he retired!
"that is a news release from the 1970s"
you are really on to something! the Houston papers are STONEWALLING and HIDING Bush documents! Why haven't they come forward with this! They must have been pressured by BG Staudt! Before and after he retired!
Makes sense to me.
This reporter is extremely biased.
Here's what I wrote to API about him.
___________________________________________
Mr. Matt Kelly/API;
I have just read your AP piece on Pres. Bush, "Newly released guard records contain letter from President Bush's father", and the issue of getting his military records from DoD.
I noted a very negative tone about the responsiveness of DoD and the administration in the article.
I served in the active army, Reserves and the National over a period of 27 years, first as an Special Forces sergeant and later as an officer.
I have to ask, sir, do you have any idea as to how DoD, the Air Force and the National Guard/Reserves prepare and maintain their files on events and people, especially ones no longer in active service? You article makes you appear to be someone who has no earthy idea as to how records are recorded at the unit level or stored stored/archived.
Your piece seems to imply that DoD has just one big folder with all of President Bush's service records in it and that they (DoD or the President) are just holding them back from you media types. They also don't have some big index that they click on a computer and all the "George Bush" files just pop out.
Unless I'm really off base here, some poor slobs at the Air National Guard's records repository, wherever that is, are probably going through hundreds of boxes by hand. They didn't have computers back then for unit records. And in each box he/she are then going through of thousands of papers trying to find every one that has George Bush's name on them. And you site back and write pieces with the tone that Bush is hiding something.
Have you ever been in the military? Do you have any idea how things in the military work, like this? It would not seem so from the tone of your article.
Before you get your ass in a wad and write another piece I'd strongly suggest that you "investigate" and learn more about that system before you criticize any further. That is, unless to criticize is all you really care to do.
Frankly, you're making yourself look like an idiot to anyone who's ever served this country.
But since we're talking about records, could you tell me how you're doing on getting all of John Kerry's records from DoD? And can you offer a reason why John Kerry won't even sign the SF-180 form to release his?
Wow, just did a Google search on your name and the words "Kerry" and "Records". Guess what, all the stories listed seem to come mostly in two flavors; Kerry's records = good and Bush's records = bad. Wow, how about that! Here's the link if you care to see for yourself http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=%22MATT+KELLEY%22+%2Bkerry+%2Brecords&btnG=Search.
But then, I guess you already knew that.
By the way, from what I'm reading you must be the API military records hit-man on Bush. I went back more than 25 pages of web links and didn't see one story favorable to the President and all seemed favorable (and defensive) about Kerry.
Regards,
Bill xxxxxx
Ellicott City, MD
What type of typewriter/wordprocessor was this written on?< /sarc>
Good post. Definitely okay!
Me thinks the WH is more modest than the kerry camp. I doubt kerry's daddy got aletter from the higher ups praising his kid!
Three decades later, a new book by Kitty Kelley has alleged that Bush used cocaine while he was a student at Yale University and later at Camp David while his father was president.
Disgusing slam. And note that the 1970 press release mentions pot, hashish and speed. There was no mention of cocaine, because cocaine was not a popular drug until the late 70s. Yet Kitty Kelley alleges Bush was a cocaine pioneer at an even earlier time!
This goes back a long way. I have a clipping in my family history file of an article on my dad's completion of OCS from the Rome GA paper.
Subtle.
Boy Bush was good!
Using cocaine BEFORE it was popularly available, yet Kerry was satisfied with just smoking pot!
(You have seen that photo where he's apparently zoned out with ajoint in hand ...)
Yep. Bush was a drug pioneer, you see -- he started the whole cocaine craze. And he started disco, too, but he's been hiding that fact ever since.
I love the way the non-partisan, objective, fair, and balanced "reportes" at (cr)AP tossed that totally irrelevant little turd in the punchbowl.
One of President Bush's commanding officers sent unsolicited praise to his family, contradicting those who say he was a slack off and possible drug user, and his father/President to be wrote a gracious letter in return.
The headline leads the reader to jump to the conclusion that GHWB wrote to the Guard seeking preferential treatment, but that is just not the case.
What an odd article!
Must be a forgery!!! The DNC has already established that Bush was never in the Air Force!!!
I'd love to have the Ibuprofen contract for the Kerry campaign!
bump
GW41 in his letter to the MajGeneral
'''In this day and age when it has become a little bit fashionable to be critical of the military, I was delighted to see him return to our house with a real pride in the service and with a great respect for the leaders that he had encountered at Lackland.''
Type (on a typewriter!) a memo that while in the National Guard in 1972 George Bush missed a shower.
Float trial ballon that Rove planted the memos. (Dowd and LA Times)
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