Monday, July 3, 2000
 |
|
|
AUSTIN, Texas -- When George W. Bush joined the Texas Air National Guard in 1968, there was little chance he would ever see Vietnam from the cockpit of his F-102 Delta Dagger jet fighter.
When the plane was in demand overseas, Bush was not yet qualified to fly it. By the time he passed his final combat flight test in June 1970, the Air Force was pulling the jets out of Southeast Asia.
Bush, the Texas governor and presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said in his autobiography that he and a friend, Fred Bailey, tried to join the Palace Alert program that rotated National Guard pilots into Vietnam.
A colonel told them only a few more pilots would go and "Fred and I had not logged enough hours to participate," Bush wrote.
 |
|
|
Udell agreed that Bush was too inexperienced for Palace Alert, but he said the young man did become a good fighter pilot. "George got really good in air-to-air combat," he said.
Udell, now a 270-pound judo expert who describes himself as a "war-type guy," said Bush had an extraordinary memory and ability to process information.
From Udell's perspective, Bush's ability to overcome his aristocratic schooling at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., and Yale University and mix with the other guardsmen was more impressive.
"It is OK to get a good education, but some of those people are a little off the wall," he said. "I just wanted to make sure that he was in it for real."
Udell said he spent six hours a day for six months training Bush. And that's not all.
"We would go to the bar and play dead bug just like everybody else," he said. When someone yelled "dead bug" the pilots would hit the floor and stick their hands and feet up in the air.
"The last guy to do that has to buy the next round," Udell said, laughing.
"He was really good with folks," he said. But the young pilot did not take insults well: "You can't put him down too easily. He's really tough. He'll fight you."
Bush's commanders were equally pleased with the young officer. The Associated Press reviewed several glowing annual evaluations along with about 200 pages of Bush's military record.
"Lt. Bush is an exceptional fighter interceptor pilot and officer," Maj. William Harris wrote on May 26, 1972, in a typical example. "Lt. Bush's major strength is his ability to work with others."
In his autobiography, Bush writes that he was proud of his service in the Texas National Guard but does not liken it to facing combat as many of his contemporaries did.
"I know it was nothing comparable to what our soldiers and pilots were doing in battle in Vietnam," he said. "I lost several friends there, pilots I trained with in flight school."
Bush spent most of his time in the Guard based near Houston, but in May 1972 he received a three-month assignment in Alabama so he could work on a political campaign.
While serving as political director of the Senate campaign of Winton "Red" Blount, a family friend, he was ordered to report for duty at the 187th Tactical Recon Unit in Montgomery, Ala.