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Does anyone know how prospective ANG pilots were assigned an airplane type? Did Bush choose the F-102 or was it assigned to him?

In a way, both.The Guard units are assigned a specific mission with a specific type aircraft. The 147th was an ADC gained unit, ergo, he got the Deuce. When the Deuce was being retired from service and being replaced with the Voodoo,W and several other F102 pilots became superflous to the mission.Not enough time left on their hitches to retrain and likely none forthcoming as there was a RIF in flying slots cojoined with the wind down of the Viet Nam War.

Does that help you at all?

Not enough time left on their hitches to retrain and likely none forthcoming as there was a RIF in flying slots cojoined with the wind down of the Viet Nam War.

To the non cognescenti, RIF means reduction in force, or layoffs. Also another reason why if W got out early it was no big thing. Pilots with tons of experience were told to get out or be reduced to enlisted rank. The huge budget slashes led by the Democrats at the end of Vietnam, eager for a "peace dividend" to splurge on their parasitic legions made it a neccesity for the survival of the military.

Thank you for the prompt answers. My father was in the USAF for 20 years. Seems I remember something very much like the F102 flying with the ANG units at Charleston AFB when I was very young (maybe 1971-73). I can't believe anyone would question the value of W being a Cold War interceptor pilot.
When W signed up for the Texas ANG as a pilot he was probably facing a greater risk just from operational accidents than Kerry would have faced in the offshore swift boat patrols he thought he was signing up for. That doesn't even take into account the combat that many of us feared our interceptor force might have had to face in those dark days of the Cold War. Mind you, I admire the way Kerry performed when he found himself in combat, but I do not think Kerry took much pride in his own behavior when it was politically expedient to protest the war. Now that it is politically expedient to be a war hero, he has developed a bit of nostalgia for his days as what he would have called a "baby killer" upon his return from Vietnam. I guess I should be glad he is finally recognizing the heroism and positive character of those who served in that unfortunate war, even if he is about 30 years late.

It is making me very sick of partisan politics (Oh well, only 9.5 months to go).

By the way, my father retired from the USAF in 1968 because his next station would have been Vietnam, and he didn't want to leave me(then aged 2), my sister (then aged 5) and my mother. If McAullife and Kerry think he was a coward for doing so, I would personally feel very compelled kick their sorry backsides.