Posted on 02/15/2004 7:10:39 AM PST by Ragtime Cowgirl
Edited on 04/13/2004 2:35:33 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Democrats -- through overreach, overkill, and character assassination, are in the process of converting what should be a political ace into a joker.
As a swift boat commander in Vietnam, Lt. j.g. John F. Kerry behaved admirably and heroically. He was awarded the Bronze Star and the Silver Star, and received three Purple Hearts for wounds sustained in combat.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
...the AWOL myth stems from some bad reporting by The Boston Globe. But even the Globe acknowledged that "in the 22-month period between the end of his flight training and his move to Alabama, Bush logged numerous hours of duty, well above the minimum requirements for so-called 'weekend warriors.' "
The truth about the AWOL myth has been known for nearly four years. That some Democrats -- knowing it is a lie -- are resurrecting it says more about their lack of character than it does about Bush's service.
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Character counts ~ in America's President especially ~ ping!
The General Turnipseed who originated the charge has backed completely away from the story. The preponderance of evidence is now ridiculously in Bush's favor.
It's definitely worth a read.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/02/15/wus15.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/02/15/ixportaltop.htmlStory seems to be big in London. The Hindustani Times and the Australians seem to have it as well.
Can't tell you how funny this looks, seeing the Bush AWOL story slowly evaporate,
http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/17932.htm
while still no sign of what the rest of the world is allowed to know.
Is something going on here?
-John Kerry- some selected, informative links...--
-The Real Military Record of George W. Bush: Not Heroic, but Not AWOL, Either-The Original Story--
The fact that many people were applying to be a pilot in the air guard means nothing. There are always far more applicants for pilot slots than there are slots.
I learned to fly in the 1970s. My instructor was a retired Air Force Colonel fighter jock. He was not only a fighter pilot but he was an ACE. He had 5 MIGS, 10,000 flight hours and 600 (wow) hours of combat flight. That is 600 hours of him shooting at them and them shooting at him. He had never gotten a scratch.
I was his first primary civilian student. He had taught many military pilots to be fighter pilots, but he had never taught a beginning student.
Early on I asked him how to recover from a stall. He said just move the controls so the plane recovers. He didn't bother to tell me which controls or how to move them. I decided to buy a book before I killed myself.
Just before he soloed me, I asked him how I was doing. His reply shocked me. He said I was doing better than he did when he learned to fly. He then showed me his log books. He had nearly flunked out. It took him over twice as many hours of flight practice to solo as it did me.
He said the two big characteristic a fighter pilot needs is leadership and being very cool under fire.
Pilots that serve their time, will undoubtedly be put in a position of leading other pilots. He said their lives will depend on you. YOu must have leadership abilities. Secondly a fighter pilot is under huge stress. If he breaks under stress he will get himself and others killed.
My instructor said that in time almost anyone can learn to work the controls of a plane in a coordinated way. But if the pilot lacks coolness under fire and lacks leadership ability no level of physical coordination is good enough for him or those who depend on him to survive.
We have seen George W. Bush under pressure. We know his leadership ability. I suspect that had there been 999 guys ahead of him in line and only one opening, George W. Bush would have been picked on merit and merit alone. Just as my Colonel buddy got picked in 1948. He like Bush scored high in self control and high in leadership. He scored low in flight skills. But the guy who picked my buddy picked a good one. He became an ACE. Only one pilot out of 1000 becomes an ACE.
Oh when I took my FAA pilots test... the FAA examiner was a former bomber pilot in the Air Force. After I passed the test, he said... you did well on the test, I found nothing for which I could take off points. But you need to learn to fly more smoothly. You fly like a damned fighter pilot. I thought... that figures... but I just replied, "Thank you for the advice, sir. I will try to learn to fly more smoothly."
Lol. I would love to see the press corps facing the families of our troops at daily briefings, one reporter at a time, required to answer questions from fathers and wives about why they continue to misreport and endanger our war efforts and our troops.
Alternative media would gladly cover this daily briefing.
I think it could grow to be a ratings winner.
*And mention 2 other Presidents: Jimmy Carter, Abraham Lincoln.
...Just before he soloed me, I asked him how I was doing. His reply shocked me. He said I was doing better than he did when he learned to fly. He then showed me his log books. He had nearly flunked out. It took him over twice as many hours of flight practice to solo as it did me.
....My instructor said that in time almost anyone can learn to work the controls of a plane in a coordinated way. But if the pilot lacks coolness under fire and lacks leadership ability no level of physical coordination is good enough for him or those who depend on him to survive.
We have seen George W. Bush under pressure. We know his leadership ability. I suspect that had there been 999 guys ahead of him in line and only one opening, George W. Bush would have been picked on merit and merit alone.
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Wonderful post, Common Tator. Thank you!
This is one of the myths that keeps repeating like pepperoni pizza when you are out of antacids. The waiting list was for non-pilot slots. Pilot training required both specific flight training qualification and commitment to nearly two years of active duty for training, nearly as much time as a draftee would have to serve WITHOUT the reserve service obligation. I am a little surprised - and more than a little disappointed - that this author failed to include that fact in his exposition.
The second myth is that his early release to attend college was some kind of special political favor to the son of a Congressman. In fact, this kind of early release of non-critical personnel to attend college was both routine and frequent. He was no longer in flight status, and the only plane he was trained on was being withdrawn from service. He would have needed several months - and millions of dollars - of retraining to return to flight status in a new fighter. Time and money better spent on a new recruit.
The author does address the third, and most egregious myth - that Lt. Bush failed to fulfill his mandatory service obligation. Failure to serve is a criminal act, and the accusation without evidence is slanderous. Those who condone this accusation without the courage to voice it themselves, as John Kerry has done, are moral cowards.
We all knew that Democrats have no character.
Chuck Yeager, the man who broke the sound barrier, is the perfect example of the right stuff. The Right Stuff is described as always being under control .. never ever panic.... never, ever acting in haste and always making the best choice. That is the right stuff. It has little to do with flying skills. Bob Hoover was Yeagers compitetion for the sound barrier job. Yeager on his best day has never been able to fly better than Hoover on his worst day. Hoover can set an absolutely full glass of water on the dashboard of his plane. Then proceed to fly loops, spins, rolls and lots of other acrobatics and never spill a drop out of the glass. Hoover is unreal. Yet Yeager got the job... Hoover can flat out fly.. but Yeager has more the right stuff. By the way Hoover and yeager are great buddies. And Hoover only lacks enough Right Stuff when compared to Yeager.
They call losing it "screwing the pooch". Losing it means doing something dumb or giving in to panic. Bush has the right stuff. You will notice he does not panic under fire. He plays it very cool. At this point he is doing just enough to keep even in the game... watch for Kerry to screw the pooch before November.
The reason Bush did not take a flight physical is that they were not going to let him fly. His Unit was changing planes and missions and he has less than a year to go. It can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to train a fighter jock on a new plane. To train Bush and then have him leave the service at the end of his enlistment was just stupid. They say it takes six million dollars to train a fighter jock. What ever it costs to train a pilot on a new plane is not going to be spent on a short timer. There was just no way, not with tons of pilots coming home from Nam that had already been trained on the plane in question. So they let Bush Serve some of his time out. Then he chose to ask for an early release.
Did you know that Kerry only served 4 months in Viet Nam?
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