Rope A Dope - the deeper they dig, the more egg on their face. Suckers!
Interesting how she buried it at the bottom of the article.
Looks like Bush tried to go to Vietnam.
Not that he would not be brave for being assigned elsewhere.
The fact that he would fly an f-102 makes him a braver man than most. Those things were not the most reliable birds.
"Udell says Bush asked about a program under which National Guard pilots were assigned to Vietnam, but Udell told him he wasn't eligible because he was certified on the F-102, which the military was phasing out.
I GET SO FRUSTRATED BECAUSE ALL OF THIS INFO IS COMING OUT (LIKE JOE WILSON'S BIG LIE), YET WE SEE IT ON A COUPLE OF CONSERVATIVE WEBSITES AND THAT'S IT. END OF STORY!!
WHEN IS THE BUSH/CHENEY CAMPAIGN GOING TO START EXPOSING THIS STUFF. THE DIM-O-RATS WOULD IF THE SHOE WAS ON THE OTHER FOOT. IT'S TIME FOR THE GOP TO GET TOUGH. NO, SCRATCH "TOUGH". IT'S TIME FOR THE GOP TO GET "BRUTAL".
Hey, did you all know that John Kerry was in Vietnam? I think he's mentioned it once or twice along the trail. </sarcasm>
Facts just get in the way of leftists. They'll say BUT .....
Many ways to spin a lie -- Only one way to tell the truth!
The facts are meant to be ignored by the america hating media. They have their agenda and the truth simply is something to be ignored.
Glad to see this story getting some light. I read about Mr Bush's Guard duty 6 months ago and it was mentioned that he had signed up for Vietnam but wasn't qualified as he flew a type of Jet that was not used in Nam.
What? This ignores history. Vietnam, at a very high level, was somewhat of a repeat of Korea. We prevailed in Korea. We sought to do the same in Vietnam but failed. A comparison of South Korea and South Vietnam today confirms that our intentions were justified but our implementation plan was lousy.
It was well-known to those subject to the draft in the 60's that if you knew you were going to be drafted and wanted to avoid the chance of being sent into combat in Vietnam, you should enlist in the Navy. That's why there was a waiting list for that service, as well as the Coast Guard, while the Army and Marines had to use draftees.
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.
Retired Col. Maury Udell, who trained Bush to fly the F-102, has no doubt his pupil was willing to go to Vietnam. 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."
Udell says Bush asked about a program under which National Guard pilots were assigned to Vietnam, but Udell told him he wasn't eligible because he was certified on the F-102, which the military was phasing out.
Thanks for (re) posting. I saw it before when it first appeared.
It's old news for some of us who knew that the reason he didn't go to Viet Nam was that the fighter was being phased out and his time in the guard was almost up (i.e. no time to requalify in another plane). The reason he got out early was partly this and partly that as the war was winding down in 1971/72, the defense department was looking to cut active duty rosters to save money. Why not let out early a jet jockey who was close the end of his tour and who could not requalify in another fighter before the end of his active service time?
Forgot to mention...
I was led to this info/article through the workings of
The Daveman.....from The Daveman Speaks Out....e-mails of news and info that conservatives need.
The Daveman always has a wise tag line...."because information is power".
Now if he would just get off his tail end and start a web site.
Air National Guard was not necessarly a good way of decreasing the odds of going to Vietnam. Lots of ANG pilots and enlisted men were activated and served in Nam. Army National Guard would have been a better option to lower the odds.
From about 1965 to 1972 anybody who enlisted in something other than the Marines or the Infantry was, in fact, evading the draft and it's probable outcome ~ namely, if you were drafted the odds were good you'd go to the Marines or the Infantry.
Why don't we have anybody running for top office who served in the Marines or the Infantry in Viet Nam during the Viet Nam War?
That's where the White House is messing up. Today's dumbed down voters learn by Pavlovian repetition. The AP typically repeats the keyphrase du jour once a paragraph in every story, ever day, for a week or two. By contrast, the GOP still believes stating the truth once a month is enough for people with IQs to absorb.
It isn't. How mmany people still thing the president sais "Niger" and "yellowcake" in his famed (urban legend) 16 word sentence?
I'm a sportswriter for a major daily newspaper. We usually write the item least important to us at the end of the story, a "throwaway" paragraph that we would like to get in - but one that is not an imperative (or, something we know we should write, but don't especially want to be included in the story. Then, if it's cut for space purposes, and we're asked about it, we can say that we did write it). The writer here saved the paragraph that portrays Bush in a favorable light until the end. It's in an easy spot for a biased copy editor to cut for a number of reasons he could devise, or for an objective editor to cut for space reasons.
Here's aonther thread that should be linked.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1081371/posts
All of these revelations of information for our side, to prove what many of us already know--that President Bush and company are honorable), are like a certain honorable (in proper context) urge which shall not be named in mixed company...
Once experienced, more is wanted. I want more of this stuff. I ESPECIALLY want to see the quote where Dubya said (allegedly long before he ran for POTUS),
"Sitting behind that cockpit, with those afterburners blowing, I didn't feel like I got out of anything..."
Of course, W doesn't need to trumpet this, like Flipper does in every sentence with his Vietnam fortnight. Perhaps that's because...well, W's been hard at work, governing Texas and leading our country. Flurch?....uh, did you know he served in Vietnam?