Hillary Aide: Bush Should Come Clean on AWOL Charges

They had George Bush go out to an aircraft carrier on a stunt. He dressed up in a flight suit. He tried to tell everyone that he was a pilot

DUHHHHHHHH!! He was a pilot you freakin idiot. What about little baby Kerry's copycat episode on an aircraft carrier? What was that?

Wolfson was apparently unaware that earlier in the day, the commander in question, Brig. Gen. William Turnipseed, had recanted his allegation, telling NBC News: "I don't know if [Bush] showed up, I don't know if he didn't. I don't remember how often I was even at the base."

Sounds like the perfect running mate for John Kerry.

Vapid fog emanating from Hillaryland

MAD COW DISEASE COMES TO MAINE!

Those pics really drive these @ssholes nuts.
I wish GWB would use the pics in an ad.
Half of the Dems would have a strokes.

The unmitigating gall of Her Shrillness. Her husband was the most dishonorable person to ever serve in the White House and she is having her people call into question Bush's military service from 30 years ago?

The name I am calling her repeatedly rhymes with rich.

Vapid fog emanating from Hillaryland

Asked when the Senator from NY. was going to turn over the missing FBI files the aid said,"I'll get back to you."

what charges???

Shouldn't Hillary come clean on the lesbian charges??

There is no evidence as far as I can tell that he went AWOL.

Yeah, when Hillary proves she didn't have Vince Foster murdered we may listen to her. And then we may not ...

"George Bush never served in our military in our country," McAuliffe told ABC's "This Week," ...

This is an old ploy, perfected by the Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels ... if you lie about something long enough, it will, in time, become truth ... at least to some people. Those "some" people, in this instance, will certainly be liberals ... many of them journalists.

"The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over"

"It is the absolute right of the State to supervise the formation of public opinion." - Paul Joseph Goebbels

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Is it just me or is this whole AWOL thing growing a bit tiresome and really ludicrous.

I was just lurking in a local forum watching a group of liberals hold a mock trial for the president over this AWOL thing. how ridiculous is that? A mock trial over a non issue.

While W was serving, Hill and Bill were off loathing the military.

Hildebeast should come clean about being AWOL while peddling her book for personal profit.

She's not being paid by the taxpayers for that.

Of course the IDIOT doesn't even KNOW that ANYONE who is in this type of aircraft is MANDATED to be in a flight suit. What did he think he GW should have done, wear a coat, tie and pants. This guy, like the person he works for, is a simpleton.

Hillary should come clean on (start ANYWHERE) charges.

I hearken back to when her "husband" came clean about his outright draft dodging and aiding and comforting of the enemy ... oh, wait, no i don't.

How many things should Hillary come clean on?

For beginners, Hill:

How did you lose your billing records in the White House? Come clean!

Filegate? Come clean!

Travelgate? Come clean!

What happens to your memory under oath? Come clean.

On second thought, just go!

A little note to Wolfson:

The words 'HILLERY CLINTON' and 'COME CLEAN' are mutually exclusive!

Here is the GEORGE magazine article that answers the question.

The Real Military Record of George W. Bush: Not Heroic, but Not AWOL, Either

Politics/Elections Front Page News Keywords: AWOL, BUSH, MILITARY, ALABAMA
Source: George Magazine
Published: 10/15/00 Author: Peter Keating and Karthik Thyagarajan
Posted on 10/15/2000 12:27:30 PDT by AHerald

The Real Military Record of George W. Bush: Not Heroic, but Not AWOL, Either
By Peter Keating and Karthik Thyagarajan

For more than a year, controversy about George W. Bush's Air National Guard record has bubbled through the press. Interest in the topic has spiked in recent days, as at least two websites have launched stories essentially calling Bush AWOL in 1972 and 1973. For example, in "Finally, the Truth about Bush's Military Record" on TomPaine.com, Marty Heldt writes, "Bush's long absence from the records comes to an end one week after he failed to comply with an order to attend 'Annual Active Duty Training' starting at the end of May 1973... Nothing indicates in the records that he ever made up the time he missed." And in Bush's Military Record Reveals Grounding and Absence for Two Full Years" on Democrats.com, Robert A. Rogers states: "Bush never actually reported in person for the last two years of his service - in direct violation of two separate written orders."

Neither is correct.

It's time to set the record straight. The following analysis, which relies on National Guard documents, extensive interviews with military officials and previously unpublished evidence of Bush's whereabouts in the summer and fall of 1972, is the first full chronology of Bush's military record. Its basic conclusions: Bush may have received favorable treatment to get into the Guard, served irregularly after the spring of 1972 and got an expedited discharge, but he did accumulate the days of service required of him for his ultimate honorable discharge.

At the Republican convention in Philadelphia, George W. Bush declared: "Our military is low on parts, pay and morale. If called on by the commander-in-chief today, two entire divisions of the Army would have to report, 'Not ready for duty, sir.'" Bush says he is the candidate who can "rebuild our military and prepare our armed forces for the future." On what direct military experience does he make such claims?

George W. Bush applied to join the Texas Air National Guard on May 27, 1968, less than two weeks before he graduated from Yale University. The country was at war in Vietnam, and at that time, just months after the bloody Tet Offensive, an estimated 100,000 Americans were on waiting lists to join Guard units across the country. Bush was sworn in on the day he applied.

Ben Barnes, former speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, stated in September 1999 that in late 1967 or early 1968, he asked a senior official in the Texas Air National Guard to help Bush get into the Guard as a pilot. Barnes said he did so at the behest of Sidney Adger, a Houston businessman and friend of former President George H. W. Bush, then a Texas congressman. Despite Barnes's admission, former President Bush has denied pulling strings for his son, and retired Colonel Walter Staudt, George W. Bush's first commander, insists: "There was no special treatment."

The younger Bush fulfilled two years of active duty and completed pilot training in June 1970. During that time and in the two years that followed, Bush flew the F-102, an interceptor jet equipped with heat-seeking missiles that could shoot down enemy planes. His commanding officers and peers regarded Bush as a competent pilot and enthusiastic Guard member. In March 1970, the Texas Air National Guard issued a press release trumpeting his performance: "Lt. Bush recently became the first Houston pilot to be trained by the 147th [Fighter Group] and to solo in the F-102... Lt. Bush said his father was just as excited and enthusiastic about his solo flight as he was." In Bush's evaluation for the period May 1, 1971 through April 30, 1972, then-Colonel Bobby Hodges, his commanding officer, stated, "I have personally observed his participation, and without exception, his performance has been noteworthy." In the spring of 1972, however, National Guard records show a sudden dropoff in Bush's military activity. Though trained as a pilot at considerable government expense, Bush stopped flying in April 1972 and never flew for the Guard again.

Around that time, Bush decided to go to work for Winton "Red" Blount, a Republican running for the U.S. Senate, in Alabama. Documents from Ellington Air Force Base in Houston state that Bush "cleared this base on 15 May." Shortly afterward, he applied for assignment to the 9921st Air Reserve Squadron in Montgomery, Ala., a unit that required minimal duty and offered no pay. Although that unit's commander was willing to welcome him, on May 31 higher-ups at the Air Reserve Personnel Center in Denver rejected Bush's request to serve at the 9921st, because it did not offer duty equivalent to his service in Texas. "[A]n obligated Reservist [in this case, Bush] can be assigned to a specific Ready Reserve position only," noted the disapproval memo, a copy of which was sent to Bush. "Therefore, he is ineligible for assignment to an Air Reserve Squadron."

Despite the military's decision, Bush moved to Alabama. Records obtained by Georegemag.com show that the Blount Senate campaign paid Bush about $900 a month from mid-May through mid-November to do advance work and organize events. Neither Bush's annual evaluation nor the Air National Guard's overall chronological listing of his service contain any evidence that he performed Guard duties during that summer.

On or around his 27th birthday, July 6, 1972, Bush did not take his required annual medical exam at his Texas unit. As a consequence, he was suspended from flying military jets. Bush spokesperson Dan Bartlett told Georgemag.com: "You take that exam because you are flying, and he was not flying. The paperwork uses the phrase 'suspended from flying,' but he had no intention of flying at that time."

Some media reports have speculated that Bush took and failed his physical, or that he was grounded as a result of substance abuse. Bush's vagueness on the subject of his past drug use has only abetted such rumors. Bush's commanding officer in Texas, however, denies the charges. "His flying status was suspended because he didn't take the exam,not because he couldn't pass," says Hodges. Asked whether Bush was ever disciplined for using alcohol or illicit drugs, Hodges replied: "No."

On September 5, Bush wrote to then-Colonel Jerry Killian at his original unit in Texas, requesting permission to serve with the 187th Tactical Reconnaisance Group, another Alabama-based unit. "This duty would be for the months of September, October, and November," wrote Bush.

This time his request was approved: 10 days later, the Alabama Guard ordered Bush to report to then-Lieutenant Colonel William Turnipseed at Dannelly Air Force Base in Montgomery on October 7th and 8th. The memo noted that "Lieutenant Bush will not be able to satisfy his flight requirements with our group," since the 187th did not fly F-102s.

The question of whether Bush ever actually served in Alabama has become an issue in the 2000 campaign-the Air Force Times recently reported that "the GOP is trying to locate people who served with Bush in late 1972 ... to see if they can confirm that Bush briefly served with the Alabama Air National Guard." Bush's records contain no evidence that he reported to Dannelly in October. And in telephone interviews with Georgemag.com, neither Turnipseed, Bush's commanding officer, nor Kenneth Lott, then chief personnel officer of the 187th, remembered Bush serving with their unit. "I don't think he showed up," Turnipseed said.

Bush maintains he did serve in Alabama. "Governor Bush specifically remembers pulling duty in Montgomery and respectfully disagrees with the Colonel," says Bartlett. "There's no question it wasn't memorable, because he wasn't flying." In July, the Decatur Daily reported that two former Blount campaign workers recall Bush serving in the Alabama Air National Guard in the fall of 1972. "I remember he actually came back to Alabama for about a week to 10 days several weeks after the campaign was over to complete his Guard duty in the state," stated Emily Martin, a former Alabama resident who said she dated Bush during the time he spent in that state.

After the 1972 election, which Blount lost, Bush moved back to Houston and subsequently began working at P.U.L.L., a community service center for disadvantaged youths. This period of time has also become a matter of controversy, because even though Bush's original unit had been placed on alert duty in October 1972, his superiors in Texas lost track of his whereabouts. On May 2, 1973, Bush's squadron leader in the 147th, Lieutenant Colonel William Harris, Jr. wrote: "Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit" for the past year. Harris incorrectly assumed that Bush had been reporting for duty in Alabama all along. He wrote that Bush "has been performing equivalent training in a non-flying status with the 187 Tac Recon Gp, Dannelly ANG Base, Alabama." Base commander Hodges says of Bush's return to Texas: "All I remember is someone saying he came back and made up his days."

Two documents obtained by Georgemag.com indicate that Bush did make up the time he missed during the summer and autumn of 1972. One is an April 23, 1973 order for Bush to report to annual active duty training the following month; the other is an Air National Guard statement of days served by Bush that is torn and undated but contains entries that correspond to the first. Taken together, they appear to establish that Bush reported for duty on nine occasions between November 29, 1972-when he could have been in Alabama-and May 24, 1973. Bush still wasn't flying, but over this span, he did earn nine points of National Guard service from days of active duty and 32 from inactive duty. When added to the 15 so-called "gratuitous" points that every member of the Guard got per year, Bush accumulated 56 points, more than the 50 that he needed by the end of May 1973 to maintain his standing as a Guardsman.

On May 1, Bush was ordered to report for further active duty training, and documents show that he proceeded to cram in another 10 sessions over the next two months. Ultimately, he racked up 19 active duty points of service and 16 inactive duty points by July 30-which, added to his 15 gratuitous points, achieved the requisite total of 50 for the year ending in May 1974.

On October 1, 1973, First Lieutenant George W. Bush received an early honorable discharge so that he could attend Harvard Business School. He was credited with five years, four months and five days of service toward his six-year service obligation.

TALK ABOUT this story in the CAMPAIGN 2000 FORUM.

April: Bush's last reported flying mission.

May 15: Bush clears Ellington AFB.

May 24: Bush applies to 9921st Reserve Squadron, AL.
View documentation

May 27: 9921st approves application, welcomes Bush.
View documentation

May 31: Air Reserve Personnel Center denies application.
View documentation

August 1: Bush flight suspension due to "failure to accomplish medical exam."
View documentation

September 5: Bush applies for 3-month duty at 187th Tac Recon, AL.
View documentation

September 15: 187th approves Bush's application.
View documentation

November-May (1973):
Record of Bush service: 56 points.
View documentation

April 23: Texas ANG orders Bush to attend annual active duty training.
View documentation

April 30: Ellington AFB unable to evaluate Bush.
View documentation

May-July: Record of Bush service: 50 points.
View documentation

October 1: Bush granted early honorable discharge.
View documentation
Chronological listing of Bush's service.
V

He was a pilot you freakin idiot.

No he wasn't. If he was, there would be documentation, there would be testimony from his flight school and squadron buddies. Indeed, if he had been a pilot, he could recall the names of his flight school and squadron buddies, and journalists could talk to them, and this whole issue would go away like smoke on a windy day. But Bush can't recall the names of his flight school and squadron buddies, because he was never a pilot.

Regardless of the 'incongruity' of the attack, the fact is that the President is lying about his military experience. And that means he's the kind of person who would lie about being a conservative. Which may explain his positions on illegal immigration and government spending.