Posted on 02/04/2004 9:22:13 PM PST by Valin
In recent days, Democrats have ratcheted up their attacks on President Bush, using the slanderous lie that Bush was "AWOL" or a "deserter" from his service in the Texas Air National Guard back in the early 1970s.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAulliffe says George W. Bush "never served in our military in our country," although, clearly, Bush did.
Former Sen. Max Cleland, who ought to know better, is telling a lie about Bush's service, claiming "Bush was AWOL and was kicked out of the Alabama National Guard." Neither part of Cleland's statement is true.
And Sen. John Kerry, current front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, reportedly has not decided whether or not he'll use the "Bush AWOL" charge in a campaign against President Bush.
The media is now re-examining the story, though, and the Bush-haters are quite happy about it. As this story in today's Washington Post indicates, there is plenty of evidence Bush was not AWOL from his Guard duties. Indeed, one of the foundational pieces of the Bush-haters' lie is the failure of a colonel in Alabama to recall Bush ever being on post.
White House communications director Dan Bartlett said yesterday that although no official record has been found, "obviously, you don't get an honorable discharge unless you receive the required points for annual service." He said Bush "specifically remembers" performing some of his duties in Alabama. Bartlett also provided a news clipping from 2000 quoting friends of Bush's from the Alabama Senate campaign saying they recalled Bush leaving for Guard duty on occasion. Bush said in 2000 that he did "show up for drills. I made most monthly meetings, and when I missed them I made them up."
Reached in Montgomery yesterday, Turnipseed stood by his contention that Bush never reported to him. But Turnipseed added that he could not recall if he, himself, was on the base much at that time.
If Turnipseed wasn't there much of the time, he's less likely to have encountered Bush. And if Turnipseed was on post much of the time but now, 30-plus years later, as an old man, doesn't remember being there, well... he is not a reliable witness.
I've extensively documented Bush's service and rebutted the Bush AWOL lie, in a series of posts you can access here. I'm not going to rehash them here except to say the facts are simple: George W. Bush volunteered for service in a military unit a part of which was at that very time involved in combat in Vietnam. He learned how to fly a combat aircraft, was a highly regarded pilot, served more time than his Texas Air National Guard contract required, and was honorably discharged.
This post is to share with you a long email I received from Steve Houpt, a retired member of the U.S. Naval Reserve. I post it here with minimal editing for typos, clarity and presentation, including replacing some acronyms with the complete organization titles.
This is too long to put in your comments section and I have no desire to start a blog. If any of this info is of any use now or in the future, feel free to use it in your blog if you desire, but you have the myth [lies] about Bush’s Air National Guard service very well covered. 1. I have worked at the Naval Reserve Headquarters in New Orleans on two different occasions [1980-1986 and 1989-1992] and have had to deal with reserve attendance in units I was assigned. Changes all the time, but it should be similar from ANG to Naval Reserve to Air Force Reserve. I also am aware of 30 year old paperwork trails. [No computers]. Reserve components have different options when someone does not drill (or is excused). We excused people from obligations all the time depending on situations. I am not aware of "court martialing" anyone. GWB was "transferred" from a unit referred to as a "hardware unit" [flying aircraft] in Texas to a "non hardware unit" in Alabama. Sounds like it was for administrative purposes. Working on a Senate campaign. No airplanes. Sounds like "excused" or "unexcused" absence. We did it all the time and who knows where paperwork is from 30 years ago. And remember, we were in a "paper" system back then.
We would transfer people to non drill units for paper work. I know GWB was under a "6 year obligation", but so what. You have two options if he really was AWOL. You activate him (and that costs active duty money) or you give him unsat. No one has any proof of what actually happened 30 years ago. Every story I have read is based from basically one story and it takes on a life of its own from there.
2. A myth has grown in this country that no Guard or Reserve served in Vietnam. Yes, the Guard was "safer" than being drafted. But we have a "Guard and Reserve" for a reason. If everyone enlisted in the active Army in 1968, we would have had to draft people into the Guard and Reserve. The draft fills ANY vacancies in the armed services. It is not an ARMY draft. It just happens that 99% of those vacancies during Vietnam were in Army infantry units.
Many Guards and Reserves served. My civilian boss from 1989-92, James G. Pirie USNR CAPT [ret], was a Naval Reserve LCDR who was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967 while flying an A-4. He was in same Naval program I was in, the Training and Administration of Reserves [TAR] program.
Draft dodgers went to Canada. I avoided the draft by enlisting in the Naval Reserve in 1971 and had to serve three years active duty because I already had my draft notice to report before I was actually sworn in. I did my three years and stayed an extra 23 years on active duty in the Navy TAR program. The draft was how the NAVY, MARINES, AIR FORCE, RESERVES and GUARD stayed at 100% [with few recruiters] and could actually pick and choose.
Tell these Guard and Reserve members why they went the "safe" route:
Colorado ANG - The POW display is on loan from former POW Gobel James, who spent five years at the infamous Hanoi Hilton. Two other Air National Guard pilots, Major Clyde Seiler and Captain Perry Jefferson, are also honored. Seiler, 38, of Aurora, died in March 1969 when his F-100 Super Sabre was shot down during a strafing run in South Vietnam. Like most National Guardsmen, Seiler had a “day job.” He was a pilot for Continental Airlines. Jefferson was 37 when an observation aircraft he was riding in with a forward air controller failed to return from its mission in Vietnam. Jefferson was also assigned to fly F-100s for the Colorado ANG. While he died in April 1969, he was listed as missing in action for nearly 12 years.
The 1960s panel features a painting called “Vietnam Scramble,” with pilots of the 120th Tactical Fighter Squadron, CANG, running for their F-100 fighter jets on Phan Rang airbase in Vietnam.
The Air National Guard in Vietnam - Eleven squadrons were called up in January 1968 in response to the seizing of the U.S. Navy ship Pueblo by North Korea, and two tactical fighter squadrons were, the 166th (Ohio) and the 127th (Kansas) were sent to South Korea.
In May 1968 one aeromedical airservice group and two tactical fighter groups were federalized.
Four tactical fighter squadrons - the 120th (Colorado), 174th (Iowa), 188th (New Mexico), and 136th (New York) - deployed to Vietnam. And although not a Guard unit, the Guard can claim credit for a fifth squadron, the 3755th: 85 percent of this tactical fighter squadron's personnel were Air Guard volunteers from New Jersey and the District of Columbia.
More on ANG in Vietnam - In response to the first presidential order, the ANG mobilized 9,343 personnel on 25 January 1968. The President mobilized and additional 1,333 Air Guardsmen on 13 May.
Prior to their return home in April 1969, they flew 24,124 sortie and 38,614 combat hours. Those numbers rose to approximately 30,000 sorties and 50,000 combat hours if the predominantly Air Guard 355th was included. Two ANG fighter squadrons and their F-100Cs were dispatched to Korea in the summer of 1968 to replace the Air Force units that had been rushed there during the Pueblo crisis.
Air Guard volunteers also supported Air Force operations in Southeast Asia. The first sizable ANG airlift involvement began in 1965. They flew regularly to SEA until 1972. Between August 1965 and September, Air Guard domestic and offshore aero medical evacuation flights freed active duty Air Force resources for such missions in SEA. In July 1970, two EC-121 "Super Constellations" from Pennsylvania's 193rd Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron departed their home station for Korea, Thailand. During the next six months, about 60 Guardsmen were rotated through the latter installation on 30 to 60 day tours in Operation "Commando Buzz," Their aircraft served as flying radar stations and airborne control platforms for U.S. air operations in SEA until January 1971.
Navy League - With the decision of the nation's leaders not to commit Reserve units to the war in Vietnam, only a small percentage of the Medals of Honor awarded went to members of the Reserve components: Three Naval Reserve and two Marine Corps Reserve personnel received the award during that long struggle.
Naval Air Reserve Squadron's VAQ-208/308 - These reserve squadrons were not mobilized but “VAQ-308 along with its later formed sister squadron, VAQ-208, established a new precedence by flying combat support missions in S.E. Asia during the Vietnam War with civilian reservists (not recalled to Active Duty) during short leaves of absence from their civilian occupations.”
Army Reserve History - Vietnam Conflict - 5,900 Army Reserve soldiers are mobilized.
Air Force Reserve, 349th - A recall to active duty was again initiated on January 26, 1968 for the Vietnam War, and many hundreds of tons of cargo were carried across the Pacific. Upon deactivation in 1969, the 349th moved to Travis Air Force Base, California, and became the second "associate" Wing in what was then the Military Airlift Command.
Steve Houpt Senior Chief Av Elect Technician [ret] USNR [TAR].
Kerry has way more to lose than President Bush over the whole military service thing.
Even if Rove were to use it, the left will simply say the "right" is bringing up old issues...blah...
Bottom line, Kerry may have served in Vietanm (did anyone know that???!!!!) but his demeanor afterwords speaks volumes; against him.
If only we could..........sigh
In that same year, 1971, Kerry was desecrating our flag, called our troops baby killers, and was openly siding with our enemy.
When the number thing came up, those who got a number that would mean a draft did all sorts of things to avoid it. A friend's boyfriend avoided the certainty of VietNam by his father's connections being used to get him a CoastGuard slot. The connections? His father was an Army recruiter!!
Another way to avoid the certainty of ground battle was to join the Navy. There were greater odds of avoiding direct shooting.
The very rich and the very bright got exemptions for graduate school. Those who could stand it and could do some Math and/or Science got exemptions to teach those subjects. Those who felt strongly enough risked their citizenship and abiltiy to return by leaving the US. The truly sleazy got bogus physical deferrments and then got into everyone's face with it by spending the war skiing in Aspen.
Another way to put off immediate time in the war was to join the National Guard or Reserves. Those slots were hard to come by, since they were in fact used as a delay tactic by many. Many opted for pilot training when they did that.
I knew two guys who signed up for ROTC for the pilot program...they knew there was a risk but they wanted to be pilots. They both ended up in the shooting war.
Senator Kerry didn't have to join; he's older than the draft system. It was a choice. He's at his best when they surround him with those he served with.
My questions with the GWB service thing are (1) did the two units he was assigned to fight in Viet Nam and (2)how common was it for those who got full pilot training to get out for grad school without the military first having them do some wartime?
I don't like this issue. World War II veterans got education, houses, and a lot of job opportunities when they returned. Since then, veterans haven't gotten their due. "Homeless veteran" should be an oxymoron. They are the ones who should be given houses, instead of subsidizing immigrants.
It's hard to convey real concern for today's veterans while dissing veterans of the past. It succeeded with McCain and that amputee Senator from the South. It's probably not a good idea to use that tactic a third time, especially since we're in a shooting war.
That's okay, most of Kerry's witnesses had nothing to do with the military ,either. As for McAuliffe, well,think about a black hole......
While we're at it, we also need to put Kerry's "support" for Veterans' issues on the table. Hopefully the morons supporting him will suddenly realize Kerry is acting like all Dems ,say soothing things, then do nothing about the problem, except exacerbate it.
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