Posted on 02/06/2004 3:58:26 PM PST by Hon
I just got off the phone about an hour ago with Brig. Gen. William R. Turnipseed. He is the sole source for the four year old story that Bush was AWOL during his National Guard service.
Mr. Turnipseed is very unhappy with the way what he said "casually" four years ago has been twisted by the "Bush haters" (his words) in the media, especially the Boston Globe (who first reported the story) and the New York Times.
In a nutshell here is what happened, according to Turnipseed. Back in 1972 his Alabama National Guard unit received a letter from Bush (who was in the Texas Nation Guard) asking if he while he was in Alabama do some equivalancy training with the Alabama unit.
Turnipseed said that this request was as a matter of routine turned over to his administrative assistant, Lott, who wrote back to Bush, giving him the dates of the next unit drills. Lott told Bush he could report for those dates.
Neither Turnipseed nor Lott can now remember whether Bush appeared for these drills or not. Turnipseed says he himself might not have even been around the base at the time, so he wouldn't know one way or the other. And he says he has always said this.
The points Turnipseed wanted to stress are these: Bush was never ordered to report for duty to his unit. Since Bush was in the Texas National Guard and Turnipseed was in the Alabama National Guard, he couldn't have ordered him even if he had wanted to. But he didn't want to.
He (or his assistant, Lott) simply gave Bush the dates he could report if he wanted to do equivalency training with them. There were no orders given. If he showed up or didn't show up, it wasn't their concern.
Additionally, Turnipseed says that he never once said anything about Bush being "AWOL." He said it isn't even a term used in the National Guard. And anyway, as already noted, Bush's training record was not his concern, but the Texas National Guard's.
He said that since the Texas National Guard gave him an honorable discharge it shows that he fulfilled his training requirements.
Turnipseed said that the media has constantly misrepresented what he said and edited him so as to make Bush look bad.
He also said that he had no idea who Bush was, and that he certainly didn't do him any special favors. Nor would he have.
He said that when he first spoke to the Boston Globe reporter about this four years ago he didn't realize he was talking to a "Bush hater."
Turnipseed is a strong Bush supporter. He said that he has been contacted many times especially recently, by "Bush haters" in the media, who try to get him to say that Bush was AWOL. Once they realize that he won't cooperate they lose interest in talking to him. When they do quote him, they say he is backpedaling--even though he is still saying the same exact thing he told them four years ago.
He has been recently asked to go on with Peter Jennings and NBC's Dateline, but he is concerned that they will edit him in such a way as to misrepresent his story again. I have been in touch with Fox news, in hopes that they will have somebody talk to him and try to present his story fairly.
Bottom line, this whole AWOL story was media spin from the git-go. The Boston Globe reporter simply cherry picked Turnipseed's comments and totally misrepresented him--to make Bush look bad.
And the media are still doing it four years later. They should be ashamed--but they have no shame. They have only their agenda.
Regarding people that don't remember seeing Bush... I don't remember seeing Kerry when I was in Vietnam. I guess he wasn't there, right? :-)
I just finished watching the White House press conference where they gave the Bush's pay records to the pack of wolves referred to as the White House press corps. Unfortunately, Scotty, the Bush press spokesman, seemed to not have an answer for the "Not Observed" reports. It sounds like he really needed to do his homework. I would expect the press to be ignorant of it (they're ignorant of everything else), but Bush's spokesman? Sigh.
It is interesting that nobody in the media (including Fox) is talking about Kerry's postwar treachery. I suspect that the Bush administration is saving that for closer to the campaign.
For those who are imagining buying ads, remember that the stupid "Campaign Finance Reform" law, upheld by the brain-dead O'Connor, makes that illegal at the time that it counts! Sad to say, Bush signed the damned thing expecting it to be overturned.
Thank you Hon.
And kudos today to ColinPowell. At a congressional hearing, a congress critter (didnt' catch his name), asked Powell a question, and in the premise of it, mentioned Bush being AWOL. Powell interrupted and said, "I don't accept your premise, congressman, and frankly you don't know what you're talking about. The congressman said, "what, I don't understand, I only said someone said he was awol". Powell said, "don't go there".
Double kudos to Powell! He wouldn't let the bastard play that game of getting damaging lies out by way of what someone else said. And Powell looked really angry.
Brig. Gen. ‘recall’ in 2004
Brigadier Gen. Turnipseed, 75 and retired in Montgomery, Ala., says he's sorry he ever said he would have "had some recall" of Bush had he attended a meeting of the Alabama Air Guard unit.
|
|
"I don't remember whether he came or not. Our unit had about 900- 1,000 men and he could have attended many meetings without me ever knowing it," Turnipseed said this week.
As for Bush being AWOL, Turnipseed said, "No way. He was never assigned to our unit so he couldn't be AWOL. Like so many Guard and Reserve soldiers during the Vietnam War, they moved around and temporarily attended meetings with other units but Bush never left his original unit in Texas.”
Turnipseed has said all along there would be no mention of the president in the Alabama unit since Bush was paid out of Texas.
When asked about Bush’s pay record, Turnipseed said the paymaster in Alabama would note Bush attended a meeting and send the information onto Texas on what he described as an "IBM 105" card where it would be recorded and sent onto payroll in Colorado.
Bush was accused by Democrats of skipping meetings because there was no written record of him attending those meetings in October and November in Alabama.
On Tuesday, the White House released payroll records that showed the president received credit for attending meetings in October and November 1972.
The records don't indicate where he attended those meetings but he was living in Alabama at the time.
As for Turnipseed, he says the crux is that it is really difficult to remember what happened more than 30 years ago.
Alabama commander regrets Bush comments
MSNBC.com ^ | 02-11-04 | Jim Cummins
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4242877/
Actually it came up during the 1994 governors' election here in Texas. Ma Richards and the mainstream press were hot on the "story." One would think that after 10 years the media might get the hint that this is a non-story.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.