Posted on 09/17/2004 3:07:34 PM PDT by NewMediaFan
WASHINGTON - A packet of Texas Air National Guard records newly released Friday showed that the commanding officer of President Bush (news - web sites)'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.
(Excerpt) Read more at story.news.yahoo.com ...
"Congressman Bush writes bakc about a Sgt. Tells you what kind of family they are. No one gets any "points" by praising a Sgt."
But by being genuine and gracious, and taking the time to notice and thank outstanding service by a trooper (sorry, that is the Army in me!) you DO gain the respect and loyalty of others . . .
People chant anti George Bush slogans as they blame him for his inability to provide security to Iraqis after a massive explosion outside a police station in Haifa street in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday Sept. 14, 2004. At least 47 people were killed and 114 wounded as the blast ripped through scores of people gathered there with hopes of joining the police force.
(AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)
One thing I remember about President George H.W.Bush is that he has always been known as a gracious correspondent. He is a good man. It is very typical of parents to write to commanders of new recruits in many military organizations and for the commanders to communicate to the parents. I know that when our son was a plebe at West Point we wrote to his TAC who had really inspired him and he wrote us back.
In addition, Sen. Dale Bumpers of Arkansas had given our son his appointment to West Point and he wrote our son to tell him he was proud of him and to let him know if there was ever anything he needed. Bumpers also wrote to us. Were we bigtime Democrats? Of course not. We were a military family who always voted Republican.
These newly released files really ring true to me.
"I was surprised and very, very pleased to receive your letter of Aug. 27th," Bush wrote, adding that he was impressed that a senior officer would take interest in a new trainee.
"Naturally, as a father I was pleased to read your comments about George," Bush wrote. "He is anxiously looking forward to going to flight school and with parental pride, I do have the feeling that he will be a gung ho member of the U.S. Air Force. I think that he will make a good pilot as well."
The letter went on to say that young Bush, on his first trip back home, was full of enthusiasm and kept the family up talking about his first instructor, Sgt. Henry Onacki, who had impressed Bush with his love of country and dedication to the Air Force.
"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."
can anyone tell me how to email the former pres bush. I'd like to email my support of him and his family. They need to know that we are behind them. What a classy family.
That is the same thing I have wondered. If all the documents were written in the early 70's it seems odd to me that in the mid to late 90's they were still available to be sanitized. Would these things have not been archived some were beside their original location by that time. It seems odd that they would not have cleaned out their file cabinets for well over a decade. Does anyone know were documents of this nature would have been archived?
This is by a "Matt Kelley" at the AP. Go on google and do a search for - "Matt Kelley" Kitty - it seems he refers to her writings a lot in reporting on Bush.
Is there a family relation between the two?
This might be new although it was left without a comment in the story:
"The new packet of documents also contained two single-page orders documenting Bush's guard training in May and June of 1973 after he returned from Alabama."
I thought all the furor was over how he 'went awol' in 72 & 73. If these documents show he was attending some drills after he returned from Alabama, doesn't that knock that old canard into rubbish?
I am not sure but I do know that Barbara Bush does email because she mentioned emailing her grandkids in her most recent book.
You're right. No wonder the article barely mentioned it.
I also would have taken a special interest in anyone who was willing to spend as many hours as W did wrangling with that mean and unruly beast AKA the F-102!
I got a very nice letter about my son too. He was an enlisted man with the 10th Mountain. It was about 10 years ago now.
It looks to me that the various branches of the services send out letters to the families of their soldiers on a regular basis, wenever the soldier is doing well. If the soldier is not married the letters go to the parents.
I didn't see the press pointing this out.
The TANG must not throw anything away! :) We had a Colonel in our office that said if we sent our records to D.C. for the archives, we might as well just destroy them. I just find it odd that they can find documents this old! Sometimes you are lucky to find something a year old but over 30 years old -- amazing!
Glad you posted that so Freepers can see those letters did go out.
It also wasn't unusual for a General Officer to send out letters either to parents or spouses about the great job their child/spouse was doing. Can remember getting phone calls from military members calling to thank one of my bosses for sending out a letter to his parents and how much it meant. My boss was the absolute neatest person to work for and like so many others, we would have done anything for him. He was a people person.
This is nothing short of amazing they found these documents in an official file.
We had to send our documents to warehouses in D.C. from Wright-Patterson to archive which is why we destroyed rather than forwarded them in boxes to D.C. Chances of finding them again were remote at best.
There is no way any office I worked in would have had 30-year old documents stored. We ran out of space and cleaned out all the files in every office I worked in every year. I can still remember the General in our office going through his files from the 2-drawer safe he had every year to have room for the next year. First thing to go were copies of letters of appreciation to people, etc.
Thirty years of documents at the Headquarters would have meant the building would have been full of safes/file cabinets and very few people.
I found the place where MSNBC has the old press releases pdf that the Pentagon released today. I couldn't find the drill records posted.
press releases:
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/Sections/News/Politics/PressReleases.pdf
Nice quotes from the 23-year-old Lt Bush in the release and a mention of a 1970 "Hurricane Becky" causing evacuation of the Florida Panhandle.
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