AP: Lawsuit Gets Bush Guard Papers Out

Yahoo ^

[Sub-Driver]

AP: Lawsuit Gets Bush Guard Papers Out

2 minutes ago

By MATT KELLEY, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) was ranked in the middle of his Air National Guard class and flew more than 336 hours in a fighter jet before letting his pilot status lapse and missing a key readiness drill, according to his flight records belatedly uncovered Tuesday under the Freedom of Information Act.

The Pentagon (news - web sites) and Bush's campaign have claimed for months that all records detailing his fighter pilot career have been made public, but defense officials said they found two dozen new records detailing his training and flight logs after The Associated Press filed a lawsuit and crafted new requests under the public records law.

"Previous requests from other requesters for President Bush's Individual Flight Records did not lead to the discovery of these records because at the time President Bush left the service, flight records were subject to retention for only 24 months and we understood that neither the Air Force nor the Texas Air National Guard retained such records thereafter," the Pentagon told the AP.

"Out of an abundance of caution," the government "searched a file that had been preserved in spite of this policy" and found the Bush records, the letter said. "The Department of Defense (news - web sites) regrets this oversight during the previous search efforts."

The records show Bush, a lieutenant in the Texas Air National Guard, was ranked No. 22 in a class of 53 pilots when he finished his flight training at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia in 1969.

Over the next three years, he logged 326.4 hours as a pilot and an additional 9.9 hours as a co-pilot, mostly in his the F-102a jet used to intercept

[bray]

W served Honorably!

Pray for W and Our Troops

[lepton]

bookmark bump

[P-Marlowe]

The records show Bush, a lieutenant in the Texas Air National Guard, was ranked No. 22 in a class of 53 pilots when he finished his flight training at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia in 1969.

He was in the top 50% of those pilots that FINISHED flight training. How many didn't even finish? Secondly, even getting into the fighter pilot program is an acheivement. So probably as far as applicants to the pilot program, I would imagine that being #22 would rank in the top 10% of program applicants.

The AP is doing their best to spin this story to show that Bush was a mediocre soldier. Well, mediocre soldiers are almost never given the keys to a 10 million dollar fighter jet. As a general rule, only exceptional soldiers are ever given that opportunity.

[okie01]

Abu Ghraib, Act II, Scene 1.

That will come soon enough. Once they get tired beating the dead horse of Bush's ANG service.

[MrChips]

Wow! Thank you! Saved, copied. Printing now! Soon to be distributed. Send it everywhere you can think of! :-)

[The Great Yazoo]

The President learned to fly an F-102 fighter jet. He DID SERVE!

END OF STORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[js1138]

That's as much time in the air as Kerry spent on patrol in Nam.

[arasina]

So are all going to email AP and ask them for the REST of the story...you know, the OTHER candidate's records? Is this absolute bias or what?

[colorado tanker]

This year, the press isn't even pretending to be objective.

But that's OK. The Bush National Guard story is the deadest horse ever; the story has been out so long nobody cares.

Continuing to push this does two things: reminds people the Swiftees also question Kerry's service; and insults all who have served in the Guard and Reserve. These morons are so blinded by their hatred of Bush they don't realize they are helping Bush.

[glock rocks]

That will come soon enough. Once they get tired beating the dead horse of Bush's ANG service.

Oh, they change the subject, but it's the same old BS, and they beat it to death. (Something about a lie told often enough...)

[woodb01]

AP Link to info

http://www.ap.org/pages/contact/contact_pr.html

If the story has national or international significance, e-mail info@ap.org. Do not send attachments in e-mail messages.

You can also mail your press release to AP's General/National Desk or International Desk at Associated Press, 450 W. 33rd St., New York, NY 10001. Be sure to include a return address on your envelope.

Main Number
1-212-621-1500

[Americalover]

Someone please explain what is so breathtaking about this? It sounds like the same old stuff to me. What am I missing?

[CFC__VRWC]

Great job AP! Now are you also suing to get Kerry's records?

We need to start the pool -
Which Rat will be the first to say, "These records raise more questions than they answer!"? I'll take McAwful.

[Lucky2]

It's amazing what comes out when the clintoon's minions become involved with a campaign. Don't think for one moment that their paw prints are on this!

[nomad]

Can the freedom of information act be used to get Kerry`s records?

[Criminal Number 18F]

By MATT KELLEY, Associated Press Writer

What relation to Kitty Kelley, exactly?

Considering that he's with AP, the two Kelleys probably use rent boys from the same escort service. Kerry probably moonlighted there.

You gotta love that 22/53 is "middle". Proof that bush is a republican. What would they call a Democrat who came 22nd in a field of 53?

But Matt Kelley has not now, and will not ever, ask for Kerry's records. Even though, well, let's compare the two controversies.

1. People who were not there have charged that Bush blew off his service for several months in 1972, and never made up the time (even though pay records show he did). Michael Moore has charged that Bush didn't take a physical for fear cocaine would be detected. (What Moore doesn't know, or more likely knows and doesn't report, having spent less time in the Service than Bush in AL and Kerry in VN combined, is that the military wouldn't drug-test its members for ten more years. So even if Bush WAS a coke head, he wouldn't flunk a physical over it). Anyway, we are talking here about two to six months of weekend drills, or a total of a dozen days.

   Because the press is desperately interested in this, Bush has authorised the release of all his records.

   Note also that this dozen days needs to be multiplied by the importance having been a fighter pilot thirty years ago has in Bush's campaign: zero.

2. Credible people who were there have documented that every one of Kerry's Vietnam medals is, at best, questionable; that he habitually falsified reports; that he claimed enemy fire where there was none.

   For reasons known only to Kerry, but strongly suggesting that he has something to hide, he has stonewalled on the release of his records. Matt Kelley and his other "fluffers" at the AP have cooperated in the stonewalling.

   Note also that this stint in Vietnam, and this apparently stolen valor, is not only the centerpiece but the whole alpha and omega of Kerry's campaign.

Folks, Kelley and company have pulled out all the stops, and we know how powerful the once-mainstream media is these days. After all, they smeared Arnold Schwarzenegger in a similar manner, and handed the election to Cruz Bustamante... er....

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

PS. At this time US involvement in Vietnam was ending... the ground forces were OUT... the military was being transformed into a much smaller, volunteer force. And the Air Guard had way more pilots than it could use, so it was RIFfing them.

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

Yes, but Bush was a mediocre exceptional soldier.

[Wild Irish Rogue]

When will the AP ask Kerry if they can view his home movies from Vietnam ?
The one Kerry shot of soldiers burning down a village ( Lt Zippo strikes again ) and of Kerry sunbathing in civilain shorts next to a bound and blindfolded prisoner ?
A is for Abu G is for Ghraib.
( Charles Sennott," The Making of a Candidate," Boston Globe, Oct 6, 1996 )

[tiki]

Until they bludgeon it to nothing.

[MEG33]

Nothing..We got flying time,ranking and grades..We had the rest.