Bush recalled in Guard unit
Ex-officer says Texan read training manuals
02/14/04STAN BAILEY and TOM GORDON
News staff writers
MONTGOMERY - President Bush released all of his Vietnam-era military records Friday, the same day a former member of an Alabama Air National Guard unit said Bush reported to him and spent time in his office during drill weekends in 1972.
John B. "Bill" Calhoun, a former member of the 187th Tactical Reconnaissance Group, said Bush, a pilot with the Texas Air National Guard, spent his time reading flight safety reports and training manuals because the 187th did not have the aircraft in which he had trained to fly.
"When he first came in, he came in and reported to me .. He hung out in my office. When he was making his drills, he was up at my office," Calhoun said.
Bush's time with the Alabama Air Guard has surfaced as a campaign issue, as Democrats have suggested he used that assignment to shirk his duty with the Texas Air Guard.
Friday, Bush released hundreds of pages of documents detailing his more than five years of Air Guard service in Texas and in Alabama, where he worked in the late Winton "Red" Blount's 1972 campaign for the U.S. Senate. Bush arrived in Alabama in May 1972.
Calhoun, a 69-year-old Atlanta-area resident, said Bush checked in with him in May or June 1972 and spent weekend drill duty with the unit at its headquarters at Dannelly Field in Montgomery. He did not specify when Bush came for drills.
"When he first got there and said he was working in the campaign, the only thing he talked about was working long hours," Calhoun said.
Another former 187th member, Joe LeFevers, told The News earlier this week he had seen Bush at the unit's headquarters in 1972.
According to records Bush has released, he received no military pay from mid-April to late October 1972, and he was not approved for service with the 187th until September. He had applied for assignment with an Air Reserve unit composed of non-active members who received no pay.
His application ultimately was withdrawn because his superiors said it was not part of a combat-ready unit and did not perform work equivalent to what Bush's training regimen as a pilot required.
When Bush was with the 187th, he attended equivalent training drills in a non-flight section of the unit "because we didn't have the airplane he was checked out in," said Calhoun, who was the 187th's safety officer. "If you go to another (unit), all you have to do to make that is to be there, and you have to stay there on that base for eight hours. He did that," Calhoun said.
"He read safety reports, accident investigation reports, he studied his training manuals, things of that nature because that was all he could do. He had no assigned duties, because we didn't have anything to assign him to."
Calhoun said he and Bush would have a meal together "every now and then."
"I felt like he was a good fighter pilot," said Calhoun. "He was dedicated to the Guard, to what he was doing in the Guard. We talked about flying mostly ... . But I did ask him if he was going to be a politician, and he said, `I don't know. Probably.' It was very nonchalant."
Bush's military records released Friday included medical records that showed Bush was suspended from flying status beginning Aug. 1, 1972, because of his failure to have an annual medical examination.
White House communications director Dan Bartlett said Bush didn't take the exam because "he was in non-flying capacity in another state" and knew he'd be there for months, The Associated Press reported. "There was no need or reason for him to take a flying exam."
The White House also earlier in the week released a copy of a dental exam Bush received at Dannelly Field on Jan. 6, 1973, as proof that Bush had been at the base. Other records showed Bush was paid for 25 days from May 1972 to May 1973, but they did not say where Bush served or what duty he performed.
No new documents:
No new documents were released Friday about Bush's serving in Alabama.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Bush had fulfilled his pledge to release all his records. "The record documents that the accusations by some are false," he said.
But Democrats kept up their criticism.
"Each revelation of material from the Bush White House has raised more questions than it has answered," said Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Debra DeShong. "It remains to be seen if these newest documents will provide any answers."
When the issue of Bush's Air Guard service in Alabama came up in 2000, Calhoun said, he contacted Bush's campaign and he was told he would be contacted if they needed him. They never did, he said.
When the controversy broke a few days ago, Calhoun said, he sent e-mails to the White House and elsewhere, but got only automatic responses and no follow-up. His wife finally contacted Georgia Republican Party officials, who put him in touch with Bush's regional campaign, he said.
Calhoun said he had difficulty believing retired Gen. William Turnipseed's quoted remarks that he didn't remember Bush showing up at the 187th's headquarters in 1972, because it was Turnipseed who sent Bush to his office.
Turnipseed said Friday his memory just may be bad, and he would be inclined to believe Calhoun's report. He said he worked with Calhoun for years and believes him to be truthful.
"I have no reason to think that he would tell it any other way than like it is," Turnipseed said.
Initially, Turnipseed said he believed he would have remembered Bush if he'd shown up for training. But Friday he said, "The more I hear of this, the more I'm convinced that my statement that I would have remembered Bush is inaccurate. And that hurts me."