Undated photo from the George Bush Presidential Library shows US President George W. Bush as a former Texas Air National Guard fighter pilot undergoing training.
Posted on 02/14/2004 1:01:23 AM PST by ambrose
Bush records fail to disprove charges
By Bob Dart and Bob Deans COX NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON - President Bush released a stack of his Air National Guard records Friday evening, but there appeared to be no new documentation to blunt Democratic charges that he shirked his duty while on temporary assignment in Alabama in 1972.
Meanwhile, a retired Alabama Air National Guard officer said he remembers Bush showing up for duty in Alabama in 1972, reading safety magazines and flight manuals in an office as he performed his weekend obligations.
However, the time John Calhoun says Bush was in the unit conflicts with documents.
The hundreds of pages chronicled the nearly six-year career of a young pilot who received high marks from his commanders after swearing in 1968 to “obey the orders of the president of the United States and the governor of the state of Texas.”
“Lt. Bush is a dynamic outstanding young officer. He clearly stands out as a top-notch fighter interceptor pilot,” Lt. Col. Jerry Killian wrote in recommending that Bush be promoted from second to first lieutenant. He called Bush “a tenacious competitor and an aggressive pilot” who displayed “sound judgment.”
But the papers were vague about where and when Bush served from May 1972 to May 1973 when he was granted permission to serve in Alabama while working on a political campaign.
It was clear, though, when he left his Texas unit.
“Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit during the period of the report,” wrote Lt. Col. William Harris, his Texas command pilot, in May 1973. “A civilian occupation made it necessary for him to move to Montgomery, Ala. He cleared this base on 15 May 1972 and has been performing equivalent training in a non-flying status with the 187 Tac Recon Gp, Danelly ANG Base, Alabama.”
Some documents show Bush was assigned to two different units in Alabama. Lt. Col. Reese Bricken welcomed him to the 9921st Air Reserve Squadron on May 26, 1972. “We’re glad to have you,” wrote Bricken. But he has since said Bush never showed up at his unit.
Meanwhile, Bush asked for and was granted permission for equivalent training for September through November of 1972 at the 187th Tac Recon Group.
On Friday, John Calhoun, 69, a Roswell, Ga., businessman and retired officer with the Alabama Air National Guard, confirmed Bush’s claims that he served with this Montgomery Guard unit while working on the 1972 U.S. Senate campaign of Winton “Red” Blount Jr.
“The truth is George Bush came to Alabama. He asked for weekend drills with us. He was assigned to me,” said Calhoun, who was in Florida on Friday for this weekend’s Daytona 500. Calhoun said he saw Bush sign in at the 187th Tactical Reconnaissance Group in Montgomery eight to 10 times for roughly eight hours at a time from May to October 1972.
“He showed up. He sat in my office. He signed in,” Calhoun said. “He was very determined to be there. He was in uniform and he did what he was supposed to do.”
However, Calhoun recalled Bush in the unit in the summer of 1972 when the documents indicate that he had not yet applied to serve there.
The records, for example, show Bush was not paid for any service during more than five months in 1972, from April 17 to Oct. 27. He was paid for two days in late October 1972, four days in mid-November 1972 and no days in December 1972.
Bush’s letter requesting duty at the 187th is dated Sept. 5, 1972.
The 187th’s former commander, retired Brig. Gen. William Turnipseed, said he knew Calhoun and he wasn’t “the kind of guy who would make up stories.”
But his own memory apparently isn’t so sound. In 2000, Turnipseed told the Boston Globe that he would have remembered Bush had he reported for duty - and that he didn’t recall seeing the young pilot.
On Friday, he said, “I don’t even remember if I was there.
“All I was trying to do is tell the truth about it. I’m beginning to find out my memory is not any good anymore. I’m 75 years old and getting Alzheimer’s.”
Informal comings and goings in the Texas Air National Guard were not unusual three decades ago and still aren’t, said a retired Air Force colonel who served in the same squadron as Bush in 1970 and 1971 when both were young pilots. William Camtenni said Lt. Bush was not the only F-102 pilot to leave the 111 Fighter Interceptor Squadron in Houston when opportunity beckoned elsewhere.
“I did it myself, and when I was a commander I also approved others doing it,” said Camtenni. “If you missed, you made it up. We were flexible on that. In the Guard, the military is our second job. We have regular jobs and careers, too.”
Camtenni defended Bush’s performance flying the F-102 jets - “single engine, single seat, only real men fly them” - and noted that several aviators in their unit died in crashes during the period when both were serving in Texas.
White House Director of Communications Dan Bartlett spoke briefly with Bush about the documents Friday afternoon. Bartlett said the president was concerned about pressroom confrontations over the issue and was hopeful that the release of the documents would clear up the matter once and for all.
“There’s this wrong impression that the president has something to hide. … He’s proud of his duty,” Bartlett said.
“He said, ‘Are we going to put ’em out?’ I said, ‘That’s up to you,’ ” Bartlett recalled. “He said, ‘Let’s put ’em out.’ ”
What part of this do they not understand?
Besides, I don't care what or how he did in the ANG more than 30 years ago. IT'S WHAT HE'S DOING NOW THAT MATTERS!
The WH should STOP responding to this non-story, appeal to the people by saying, "we've given the RATS EVERYTHING they've asked for, within reason since it was 35 years ago, but they're still not happy....they will NEVER be happy, so we're moving on.
END OF STORY.
But they should also DEMAND to see Kerry's record IF he's nominated, which I'm beginning to doubt.
I'M PISSED OFF NOW!
Undated photo from the George Bush Presidential Library shows US President George W. Bush as a former Texas Air National Guard fighter pilot undergoing training.
Exactly. Let them speculate, postulate and implode.
They just haven't figured out that this dog won't hunt. Maybe they never will. It's gonna be a lomg summer.
Kerry also needs to completely release all his records, including the FBI records when he was an anti-war organizer (that should be interesting reading!).
Also needed are records of his medals, requests for reassignment from Vietnam, medical records (including those validating his purple hearts), Effectiveness Reports and personal testimonies of the men who served on his boat (we haven't heard from any of those men yet, have we?) as well as how he got his final plush assignment as an aide and how he got released from service.
Let's have it all out there to so everybody can all take a sigmoidoscope to it and give him the same sort of exam the Media is now giving Bush!
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