Posted on 02/11/2004 11:46:52 PM PST by Hon
Bush met military obligation, aide says
02/11/04MARY ORNDORFF and BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE
News staff writers
A White House spokesman said Tuesday that President Bush worked enough days as a member of the Texas Air National Guard in 1972 and 1973 to fulfill his annual training requirements, but new payroll records he released also show a five-month gap while Bush was assigned to a small reserve unit in Montgomery.
Bush did not receive military pay from May to September of 1972, according to the documents, and the former commander of the 9921st Air Reserve Squadron said Tuesday that Bush didn't show up during those months.
"He never did come to my squad," said retired Lt. Col. Reese Bricken, who lives in Montgomery. "He was never at my unit."
Bricken reviewed documents Tuesday showing Bush's transfer request to his squadron and his response to the request. He said he remembered sending approval back for him to serve in the small unit, made up of reserve members who met weekly.
"He was looking for a place to hang his hat, but he never came by," Bricken said.
Although the president's spokesman talked Tuesday about how the newly discovered payroll records show that Bush satisfied his annual training duties, a specific request to explain the time Bush was with the 9921st was not answered.
The documents give a date-by-date rundown of Bush's pay history as a first lieutenant in the Texas Air National Guard, including May to November of 1972, when he was in Alabama working on a political campaign. The White House, at Bush's request, released the records to answer charges from Democrats that he skirted his military obligations.
"The president recalls serving both when he was in Texas and when he was in Alabama," White House press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters. "And 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 from the National Guard. The president was proud of his service."
The White House says the records are proof that Bush adequately performed his duty as a guardsman because records show he accumulated 56 points toward his retirement in both 1972-73 and 1973-74, above the minimum requirement of 50 points.
"These records reflect that he met his requirements, both in point summaries and that he was paid for the days in which he served," McClellan said.
Worked for Blount:
The records show Bush was paid in the first four months of 1972 for 30 days of military service apparently completed in Texas. But in May, he asked permission to train in Alabama because he was going to work as political director for Winton "Red" Blount's 1972 campaign for the U.S. Senate. His first transfer was approved to the 9921st Air Reserve Squadron, a 22-man postal unit on Maxwell Air Force Base.
The 9921st squadron met every Tuesday night to review military materials, including things like first aid manuals. Unit members were no longer in the active military and did not earn pay for their work.
The meetings helped the reservists earn points toward their retirement. The unit had no way of helping an active guard member meet his training obligations, Bricken said.
Bush's assignment to the 9921st was withdrawn months later because his superiors pointed out it was not part of a combat-ready Guard unit and did not perform work equivalent to what Bush's training regimen as a pilot required. So in September, Bush applied to the 187th Tactical Recon Group, also in Montgomery, according to a Sept. 5, 1972, letter. The three-month transfer was approved.
Bush's pay records, as provided to the White House by the Defense Financing Accounting Service, pick back up soon after, with paychecks covering two days in October and four days in November.
The election, in which Blount lost handily to U.S. Sen. John Sparkman, was Nov. 7 that year.
Although the payroll records show Bush getting paid for service in Alabama in October and November, a commander of the 187th said Tuesday that he didn't remember the young Texas pilot. At the time, according to a Montgomery newspaper report in 1972, the 187th had about 800 members.
"I don't remember him showing up, and I think I would have remembered it because I spent my career in Texas, have a big tie to it," said retired Gen. William Turnipseed. However, Turnipseed, who is in his 70s, said it is possible that he wouldn't remember since it was more than 30 years ago.
A letter from that time said Bush was to report to Turnipseed, but the former commander said he wasn't aware of the letter until a reporter contacted him during the 2000 presidential campaign. After national news organizations bantered Turnipseed's name around in 2000, he was contacted by old unit members. None of them mentioned remembering Bush, he said.
However, Turnipseed said Bush was not under an obligation to report and could miss drills with the 187th as long as he made up enough points in the year to fulfill his obligation.
"You know, probably, rules were a little looser back then than they are now. If you go in the Guard now, you are going to end up in Iraq," Turnipseed said.
Turnipseed said he is a Bush supporter.
"I'm fed up," he said. "People want me to give them something to bash Bush."
`Very active':
Joe LeFevers, a member of the 187th in 1972, said he remembers seeing Bush in unit offices and being told that Bush was in Montgomery to work on Blount's campaign.
"I was going in the orderly room over there one day, and they said, `This is Lt. Bush,'" LeFevers said Tuesday. "They pointed him out to me ... the reason I remember it is because I associate him with Red Blount."
Red Blount's son, Winton Blount III, said Bush was the campaign's deputy manager and spent a lot of time in Birmingham and north Alabama.
"He was a very active part of that campaign," said Blount. "And as my aunt said, she hoped people would act as nice in other people's homes as he did."
News staff writers Kim Chandler, Stan Bailey and Tom Gordon contributed to this report.
-The Real Military Record of George W. Bush: Not Heroic, but Not AWOL, Either-The Original Story--
Maybe those are Bush's reasons, or maybe he missed some drills. That was 30 years ago, and I have to assume that if his C.O.(s) allowed it, and he was honorably discharged, then he was NOT AWOL.
I myself drilled with a unit in Texas during a time when my Company required me to work there. It was either permanent transfer for 2-3 months, quit the USNR, or do TDY with this unit. I don't remember which one it was, they don't remember me, and I'd be hard pressed to prove by documentary evidence that I was there in 1986.
During my last year in the USNR, at my last Command, I drilled in Washington part of the time, meeting with Pentagon-type brass, with my unit part of the time, and at other meetings the rest of the year. My own unit saw me about 1/3 of the year (i.e. I had a good X.O. to back me up), but the result of my time away from the unit was 12 months of the best training the guys could get .. they were always doing "real-world" training with active duty units.
The Reserves and Guard works all sorts of deals for the right guy, more so in the 60's and 70's, but still to day, if it benefits the Service. If Bush was a problem child, he'd wouldn't have been in a jet, let alone allowed "detached" or TDY duty. That's something you "earn".
SFS
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