Retired Guard Officer Says He Saw Some Files Discarded in Trash

I'm just curious as to how you can tell who's a troll and who isn't. If you keep kicking new guys off there'll come a day when it'll only be you, Jim, a few other moderators and me.

Can you please post a link to his user posts page at the top of the thread? He posted another Moby-ish thread earlier.

He was a DUer. I can smell 'em a mile away.

signed up today, posted anti-bush hit piece. Mods have visibility into IP addresses etc of users. When new accounts are repeatedly set up and banned from same IP addresses, the mods are able to spot and Zot them pretty quickly.

We'll see a lot of these vague smears before November. Someone said they heard from someone else that they saw someone maybe doing something. Nothing provable or disprovable, just sowing the seeds of doubt and hoping they fall on moist bull****.

I have worked at Camp Mabry since 1973. There has NEVER been any LTC Burkett working here.

The Dallas paper doesn't say that he worked there, just that he was there, aparently on a trip.

Oh, did you forget to post the exculpatory parts of the article?!

Aides say records show Bush served

Retired Guard officer says he saw some files discarded in trash

02:46 AM CST on Wednesday, February 11, 2004

By WAYNE SLATER and MICHELLE MITTELSTADT / The Dallas Morning News

The White House released records Tuesday to buttress the president's assertion that he fulfilled his military duty during the Vietnam War, but it faced new questions about whether George W. Bush's file was altered before his 2000 presidential race.

Retired National Guard Lt. Col. Bill Burkett said Tuesday that in 1997, then-Gov. Bush's chief of staff, Joe Allbaugh, told the National Guard chief to get the Bush file and make certain "there's not anything there that will embarrass the governor."

Col. Burkett said that a few days later at Camp Mabry in Austin, he saw Mr. Bush's file and documents from it discarded in a trash can. He said he recognized the documents as retirement point summaries and pay forms.

More from the campaign trail

Kerry thumps rivals in South
• En español

Clark abandons presidential race

Aides say records prove Bush served

For some candidates, a last stand?

Prolonged primaries bad for party, Democrats say

Trail Mix: Bush rubbing elbows with locals

WFAA-TV Video: Dave Cassidy reports

Video: John Kerry

Video: Wesley Clark

Video: John Edwards

More Elections coverage

Bush aides denied any destruction of records in Mr. Bush's personnel file. "The charges are just flat-out not true," said Dan Bartlett, White House communications director.

He said the president has been forthright in producing all documents relevant to his stint in the Texas Air National Guard, from 1968 to 1973. He dismissed Col. Burkett as a disgruntled former officer of the Texas Guard.

Mr. Allbaugh, now a Washington lobbyist, called Col. Burkett's assertions "hogwash."

A spokesman for the Texas Air National Guard, Lt. Col. John Stanford, dismissed Col. Burkett's account of the conversation as "far-fetched." Of the accusation that the files were altered, he said, "I have no knowledge that such an event ever occurred."

The release Tuesday of Mr. Bush's retirement point summaries and pay records as a member of the Guard underscored an effort by the White House to resolve a growing political debate over whether the president fulfilled his military obligations. Mr. Bush's service emerged as an issue in the 2000 campaign after a review of his military file found no evidence that he showed up for Guard duty for more than a year after transferring in May 1972 from his base in Houston to Alabama, where he worked on a Senate campaign.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe recently called Mr. Bush "AWOL" – absent without leave – during his time in Alabama. He noted that Mr. Bush's commanding officers said that they could not recall him taking part in some training.

Mr. Bush, who appears increasingly likely to face decorated Vietnam War veteran John Kerry in the November election, has long said he fulfilled his Texas Air National Guard duties, both in Texas and Alabama.

The records that the White House released Tuesday reflect pay and service for dates in 1972 and 1973 – a further refutation of the "outrageous, baseless accusations" made by Democrats, said White House press secretary Scott McClellan.

Service under scrutiny

Major events in President Bush's service in the Texas National Guard, from staff and wire reports:

Jan. 19, 1968: Mr. Bush completes Air Force officer qualification test in New Haven, Conn., where he is attending Yale University.

May 27, 1968: Walter Staudt, commander of the Texas Air National Guard, interviews Mr. Bush and says he should be accepted for pilot training. Mr. Bush, whose father was Houston Rep. George Bush, had been recommended for the Guard by Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes. In 1999, Mr. Barnes said he did so at the request of Houston oilman Sid Adger, a Bush family friend. The Bushes have said they didn't ask for or know about Mr. Adger's efforts.

Critics say there was a waiting list of thousands for Guard slots, but the man in charge of keeping the list said there was no such wait for willing, qualified pilot applicants.

Aug. 25, 1968: After graduating from Yale, Mr. Bush completes six weeks of basic military training in San Antonio as a 2nd lieutenant.

Nov. 26, 1968-March 1970: Mr. Bush attends one year of undergraduate pilot training at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia and additional training at Ellington Air Force Base near Houston.

May 1972: Mr. Bush, by then a 1st lieutenant, asks for and receives permission to continue his duties in Alabama while working as political director on the Senate campaign of Winton Blount, a friend of his father. He loses his flight credentials after missing a physical exam.

Mr. Bush's two superior officers in Houston write a year later that they could not perform his annual evaluation because he had "not been observed at this unit" during the preceding 12 months. The retired general who commanded the Alabama unit then has said he does not recall seeing Mr. Bush there, though the president says he did report for duty.

November 1972: Mr. Bush returns to his unit at Ellington in Texas.

May-July 1973: Mr. Bush participates in nonflying drills at Ellington.

Sept. 18, 1973: Mr. Bush receives permission to transfer to reserve status and is placed on inactive Guard duty about six months before his six-year commitment ends. He asked for that so he could attend Harvard Business School.

Oct. 1, 1973: Mr. Bush is honorably discharged. The records show that Mr. Bush was paid for 82 days of service during 1972 and 1973 – nearly half of which occurred during a three-month period, from May through July 1973.

The records do not indicate what duty Mr. Bush performed or where. The White House said it has not been able to produce fellow Guardsmen who could testify that Mr. Bush attended Guard meetings and drills.

"The president recalls serving both when he was in Texas and when he was in Alabama," Mr. McClellan said. "We have provided you these documents that show clearly that the president of the United States fulfilled his duties, and that is the reason that he was honorably discharged."

'That means he served'

The White House also issued an assessment solicited from a retired Texas Air National Guard personnel director who scoured the Bush military files during the 2000 campaign and reviewed the latest documents.

The new records "clearly" show that Mr. Bush "completed his military obligation in a satisfactory manner," retired Lt. Col. Albert Lloyd Jr. wrote.

The Democrats' Mr. McAuliffe said he still has questions.

"The fact remains that there is still no evidence that George W. Bush showed up for duty as ordered while in Alabama," he said. "We also still do not know why the president's superiors filed a report saying they were unable to evaluate his performance for that year because he had not been present to be evaluated."

Mr. McClellan said the records came to the staff's attention only Monday, after a check with the Air Reserve Personnel Center in Denver the day after Mr. Bush said on NBC's Meet the Press that he "absolutely" was willing to release his military records.

The 11 pages are pay records and summaries reflecting how many points Mr. Bush accumulated toward fulfillment of his Guard obligation. The records don't document any service dates between April 16, 1972, and Oct. 28, 1972 – periods during which Mr. Bush was in Alabama.

Although the records do reflect some pay dates in 1972, Mr. McClellan stopped short of saying the documents offered definitive proof that Mr. Bush had shown up for duty in Alabama.

"When you serve, you are paid for that service, and these documents outlined the days on which he was paid," he said. "That means he served."

Mr. McClellan said Mr. Bush, a fighter pilot who didn't fly after April 1972 and later lost his flight status because he didn't complete his annual physical exam, performed "equivalent duty" in Alabama.

'The fair picture'

Mr. Bartlett called the Burkett allegations "outlandishly false" and accused him of being part of a group of disgruntled former Guardsmen critical of Maj. Gen. Daniel James III, head of the Texas National Guard before Mr. Bush promoted him to head the National Guard in Washington.

Gen. James' office referred all calls to Col. Stanford.

Col. Burkett acknowledged that he and other Guardsmen questioned the discipline standards and other issues under Gen. James. But Col. Burkett said from his home near Abilene that he remains loyal to the Guard.

Col. Burkett, who has voted in both GOP and Democratic primaries in the past, said he was disturbed over how the Bush file was handled. He initially made his assertions on a Web site two years ago, and they are reported in detail in a forthcoming book, Bush's War for Re-Election, by James Moore.

"I would like it that everybody sees the honest and fair picture here," he said.

According to Col. Burkett, he was at headquarters in the summer 1997 when he heard the conversation between Gen. James and Mr. Allbaugh. He said the Guard commander had the conversation about eliminating "embarrassments" on a speakerphone.

About 10 days later, he said, he saw Texas Gen. John Scribner going through the Bush file.

"I looked down and saw files on the table and of that sort of stuff, and in the wastecan there is a retirement points document that has the name Bush, George W. lLt on it," he said. "There were both originals and Xerox copies in the stack."

Gen. Scribner, now retired, denied the episode. "I sure don't know anything about what he's talking about," he said.

Staff writers Pete Slover and Ed Timms contributed to this report.

E-mail mmittelstadt@dallasnews.com and wslater@dallasnews.com

So, you mean he's been posting stuff all day? I mean, if this was the only thing he posted, I'm glad he did because it's just another example of how depraved (am I using that word correctly?) our so-called journalists are!

Ah ha! It's the their "smell" and your "smeller". Now I understand.

Well, I'm glad he posted it, du'er or not. This kind of crap needs to be rebutted by showing how stupid it is. If it's Moby or his friends, let 'em get it out their and show their stupidity. And Lt. Col. going through the garbage has no credibility.

Let's see, a military officers sees official military forms thrown in the trash. It was not important enough to do anything at the time, but he remembers it years later. Bull Sh*t.

Please.
This wouldn't even be admissable in court, and they are trying to make it a story?

I'm just curious as to how you can tell who's a troll and who isn't.

Somebody who has registered recently, posted little or nothing, and then suddenly posts a negative story about Bush, of dubious provenance, doesn't pass the smell test, IMO.

And let me write "their" instead of "there" and show MY stupidity.

Umm, anyone who knows anything about the military knows that personnel files are NEVER simply, "Tossed in the trash."

This is total made up BS. The author is Wayne Slater, who tried to pull a similar October surprise in 2000, with similar accusations of a 'memory' nature that couldn't be proved or corraborated.

There is a special place in hell for lying hack henchmen like Wayne Slater.

PRESIDENTIAL ZOT!

This guy has a major ax to grind with the Texas Guard.

Date: 8/8/02

Case Style: Bill L. Burkett v. William W. Goodwin, Jackie L. Taliaferro and Archie M. Meador

Case Number: 03-01-00302-CV

Court: Texas County of Appeals, Third Appellate District

Description: Bill Burkett, a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the Texas Army National Guard, brought a personal injury action against appellees, William Goodwin, Jackie Taliaferro, and Archie Meador, all of whom were his superior officers. (1) Burkett appeals from the trial court's order dismissing his lawsuit. While Burkett sets out his appellate issue as "whether the court below erred in granting summary judgment to the defendants-appellees," he raises the following contention in the argument portion of his brief: Because he commenced his claims against the appellees in their individual capacities only, (1) his claims were justiciable in a civilian court and (2) the appellees were not entitled to statutory immunity under Texas Government Code section 431.085; therefore, the court erred in dismissing his lawsuit. See Tex. Gov't Code Ann. § 431.085(a) (West 1998). We will liberally construe Burkett's brief and will focus our review on this contention. See Tex. R. App. P. 38.9. We will affirm the trial court's order of dismissal.

Background

Burkett alleged that on January 17, 1998, he collapsed at the Abilene airport on his return home from an active duty assignment in Panama with the United States Army. He alleged that his collapse was caused by a tropical disease he contracted while on active duty in Panama. After several days of illness, Burkett went to Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene seeking medical care. Individuals at the medical facility's admissions office told Burkett that they needed clearance or confirmation of Burkett's active duty status from the Texas Army National Guard before he could be admitted for medical care. Burkett alleged that pursuant to Texas Army National Guard regulation 7-3, had any of the appellees, who were in command positions with the Texas Army National Guard, provided the admissions office at Dyess with clearance or confirmation, he could have received prompt medical attention at Dyess. He asserted that based on Guard regulations, it was Goodwin's, Taliaferro's and Meador's ministerial duty to provide clearance or confirmation of his active duty status to Dyess and that they were without discretion or authority to refuse to provide the clearance or confirmation of his status to Dyess.

Burkett alleged that over the next four months Goodwin, Taliaferro and Meador willfully and maliciously refused to provide Dyess with clearance or confirmation of his duty status thereby denying him access to military medical care. Burkett alleged that these three individuals' conduct was "so completely beyond and outside any military authority or discretion as to have been outside the scope of military duty, outside any military duty, outside any military capacity, and not incident to military duty." Burkett alleged that they "acted purely as individuals, not as military officers, albeit pretending to have military authority and abusing their offices through such pretense in order to willfully and maliciously wreak havoc upon [Burkett's] life." As a result of their refusal to provide clearance and confirmation of Burkett's active duty status, he was unable to obtain a medical diagnosis or military medical care for his debilitating illness. Burkett finally received access to military health care due to the intervention of a United States Congressman. By the time he received military health care, the disease had ravaged his body, and left him disabled and unable to return to either military duty or gainful civilian employment. Burkett alleged that as a direct and proximate result of Goodwin's, Taliaferro's and Meador's tortious conduct, he suffered various personal injuries. Further, he alleged that because their actions were willful and malicious, he was entitled to exemplary damages.

Goodwin, Taliaferro and Meador moved to dismiss the case for want of jurisdiction and moved for summary judgment. They contended that the trial court was without subject matter jurisdiction over the case because the military personnel matter at issue was not justiciable in civilian courts. See Feres v. United States, 340 U.S. 135, 146 (1950); Newth v. Adjutant Gen.'s Dep't, 883 S.W.2d 356, 358 (Tex. App.--Austin 1994, writ denied). Additionally, they moved for summary judgment on the grounds that they were statutorily immune for their alleged actions. Tex. Gov't Code Ann. § 431.085 (West 1998). Burkett responded to the appellees' motions contending that indeed the court had subject matter jurisdiction because he was suing Goodwin, Taliaferro and Meador in their individual capacities and not as military personnel. Burkett contended that due to the appellees' intentional failure to discharge a mandatory, non-discretionary duty under Texas Army National Guard regulation procedure 7-3 to confirm Burkett's duty status to the medical facility at Dyess, he suffered damages for which he could recover at common law. The trial court dismissed Burkett's case.

Guy shows up TODAY and starts posting nothing but AWOL stories.

Probably after he got a phone call where someone read "The woods are lovely, dark and deep..." to him. </obscure movie reference>

A couple of days ago, the NY Post reported that Moby, a rap star, was recruiting people at his concerts to come to websites like this one and pretend to be conservative, but say that "for the first time in my life, I won't vote Rep." He's just here to stir us up against Bush. Free Republic has no problem with this story (although Arrowhead proved it wrong) being posted, just not by Moby.

What a load of hogwash.