Posted on 09/07/2004 10:00:01 PM PDT by alydar
In February, when the White House made public hundreds of pages of President Bush's military records, White House officials repeatedly insisted that the records prove that Bush fulfilled his military commitment in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War.
But Bush fell well short of meeting his military obligation, a Globe reexamination of the records shows: Twice during his Guard service -- first when he joined in May 1968, and again before he transferred out of his unit in mid-1973 to attend Harvard Business School -- Bush signed documents pledging to meet training commitments or face a punitive call-up to active duty.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1082753/posts
Joppa man: Bush served in Guard in '72
Not only was George W. Bush fulfilling his National Guard duties in 1972, he was already showing the conservative political ideology that is now the bane of many Democrats, according to a Joppa man.
Joe Holcombe, 71, was the office manager for Winton "Red" Blount in his unsuccessful race for the U.S. Senate in 1972. Bush was the county coordinator for Blount's campaign, Holcombe said. The Blount family and the Bush family were good friends, Holcombe said.
Blount lost to Morgan County native and U.S. Sen. John Sparkman.
Bush joined Blount's campaign "a little before or a little after the primary, which was the first Tuesday in June 1972," Holcombe recalled.
"It wasn't too long after he joined the campaign that we learned he was in the National Guard. He was a jet fighter pilot, and that kind of singled him out. That made him seem more respectable to us, I think," Holcombe said.
Holcombe said he remembers a specific conversation when the campaign manager mentioned Bush's National Guard duty.
"We were having a staff meeting late in the campaign. George wasn't there and I asked where he was. Jimmy said, 'He's in National Guard today.' That was on a Saturday. I dropped the subject because it didn't matter much to me at the time," Holcombe said.
Holcombe said he also remembers Bush returning to Montgomery for National Guard duty after the campaign ended.
"He went home (in Texas) for a few days after the campaign ended. My understanding was that he came back in November, after the campaign, to finish out his National Guard obligation. He gathered up his stuff to take back to Texas with him," Holcombe said.
Holcombe said he might have paid a bit more attention to Bush had he known the man was destined to be president.
"If I knew then what I know now," Holcombe said, "I might have asked a few more questions."
Units are friendlies! HOLD YOUR FIRE REPEAT HOLD YOUR FIRE!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1078764/posts
Doctor Recalls Treating Bush
Montgomery Advertiser ^ | February 15, 2004 | Jessica M. Walker
Posted on 02/15/2004 2:00:58 PM PST by Hon
A retired Air National Guard physician recalls giving President Bush a physical in 1972, his son said Saturday, adding another memory to the small but growing pool of recollections of Bush's military service in Montgomery.
-snip-
No problem, it keeps the whole issue of military service on the front burner when Kerry would like nothing more than to just change the subject.
"John Kerry signed an agreement as part of his naval officer commission to serve at least 3 years on active duty and the remainder of his obligated 6 year service in the Ready Reserves. Ready Reserves are those who must attend drills.
He further agreed that while in the Ready Reserves (from discharge to 1972) he would perform no less than 48 drills per year and up to 17 active duty days per year, or alternatively, 30 active duty days per year. None of Kerry’s released records shows any evidence of his performing these Ready Reserve obligated days in 1970 through 1972, after which he was transferred to the Inactive Reserves. The only Performance of Duty form released covers 1966. There should be one for every year.
Nor is there any excusal from drilling status in his records, or alternatively, pay and attendance records indicating that he performed any drills in 1970-72 as required of a Ready Reservist.
The Kerry campaign has said that his separation from active duty put him in the inactive, non-drilling Naval Reserve so he could run for Congress. This is NOT true, as follows:
Kerry’s transfer from the Ready Reserves to the Standby (Inactive) reserves did not occur until March 1972, NOT upon his release from Active Duty to run for Congress (1969/70).
Furthermore, Kerry’s official transfer from the Ready Reserves to the Standby (Inactive) Reserves was not formalized until July 1972.
Contrary to what Kerry's campaign says, the wording on his Release from Active Duty (to run for Congress) does NOT put him in the Inactive Reserves - it puts him in Inactive Duty status, which includes Ready Reserves with attendant drill obligation. BIG difference - though the confusion is understandable."
I can hardly WAIT for the Globe to probe this.
Then why wasn't he called to active duty? BTW GW was on actual active duty longer than 3 scratches and out Kerry.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1077951/posts
Memories place Bush in Alabama if records don't
By DAVE HIRSCHMAN in Montgomery , MONI BASU in Atlanta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 02/13/04
The search for proof that young Lt. George W. Bush worked weekends at an Air Force base in Montgomery, 32 years ago has taken on a strange, forensic quality.
Dusty dental records and copies of old pay stubs provided by the White House are the only hard evidence that the future president, then 26, was ever there. But journalists have interviewed scores of Alabama Air National Guard pilots, navigators and mechanics from the period and have found few, if any, who can remember seeing him there; if they can remember at all.
One who said he does remember is Roswell businessman John Calhoun, 69. A retired officer of the Alabama Air National Guard and co-owner of Industrial Coatings Alliance Group, Calhoun stepped forward this week to say he could vouch for the president's claims that he served with a Montgomery guard unit to fulfill his military obligation. Bush moved to Alabama to work on the unsuccessful 1972 U.S. Senate campaign of Winton "Red" Blount Jr.
-snip-
Former Montgomery Mayor Emory Folmar, an aide in 1972 to Sen. Sparkman, said he remembers Blount talking about Bush but he never met him.
Folmar, mayor from 1977 until 1999, switched to the GOP in 1975. He said journalists call him every time Bush runs for office to ask questions about the poorly recorded year the young man spent in Alabama.
"This thing has been investigated ad nauseam," Folmar said. "Why are you still whipping this dead horse?"
This is getting beyond stupid.
How many times has this been recycled now?
No matter what Bush did or did not do, he is not a TRAITOR John KERRY is.
Former Dannelly worker: Bush not AWOL
By Eric Fleischauer
DAILY Staff Writer
eric@decaturdaily.com · 340-2435
Retired Master Sgt. James Copeland does not care so much whether people think President Bush went absent without leave in 1972, but one thing he hears bothers him plenty.
"Maybe the Bush family was well known in Texas, but we didn't know who he was here. He was just another guy in a flight jacket," Copeland said Sunday.
Copeland, who lives in Hartselle, retired from the Air Force on Jan. 31, 1980. He was the disbursement accounting supervisor, a full-time position, for Dannelly Air National Guard Base in Montgomery from Oct. 28, 1971, to Oct. 27, 1975. His office was less than 100 yards from the hangar where Bush performed drills.
Rumors say Bush went AWOL while assisting Winton "Red" Blount in an unsuccessful campaign for U.S. Senate focus on 1972 and 1973.
Copeland, 65, remembers meeting Bush on two occasions. He does not remember the precise dates. On one occasion, Copeland said, Bush and Lt. Col. John "Bill" Calhoun came to Copeland's office with a question about Bush's pay. Copeland is not sure, but he believes the question had to do with where to mail Bush's checks.
Bush was never a member of the Alabama National Guard, he just did his drills here. For that reason, Copeland thinks he referred the pay question to the paymaster for the Texas National Guard.
I think we've had enough probing for one night.
Regardless if true or not, any 'unmet' military committment was more than offset by serving as
COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF THE GREATEST MILITARY FORCE IN THE WORLD FOR NEARLY FOUR YEARS!!!!!!!
And a damn good one, I might add.
Eat your heart out, Kerry. And get back in the tub with your rubber ducky.
I am sick and tired of Kerry and the media telling lies about our President.
Exhibit A is the claim no one from Alabama stepped forward. That's a flat out lie, yet they say it.
Bush has been totally honest about his service, and has commended Kerry on his, even to the point of saying Kerry's service was more important than his own.
All this controversy will do is make Kerry look like he is hiding something, which he is, and also will serve to get the truth out about the confusion over Bush's Alabama guard service.
He never served in the Alabama unit because he was TDY. His records were kept in Texas and he disappeared off the scope for a few months, and all they have is his make up records which are confusing to someone who has not served in the military. Especially the TDY stuff which people simply misunderstand.
I was TDY for over a year to a training range and it would look to the average person like I was AWOL. The only records would be when I signed my name to get a meal, and that was seldom.
It was Kerry who made military service a issue, so let him prove his!
That is how the public should see it, because Bush has all of his out in the public domain.
I expect there will be many who will explain this TDY thing and Kerry will still be a phony war hero with no records, other than the ones he had made up to cover his sorry ass.
Thank you Slings and Arrows, I appreciate that. Only been around here for 4 or 5 months and I'm still learning. (I e-mail Maureen Dowd a different picture of Catherine Zeta Jones every Sunday to show my loyalty to FR)
I like read Dubya medical records ambrose
I bet Dubya was in better shape back in da day than John Kerry what do you think
Somebody have a pic of GW in his flight suit? I like to be reminded that he was a pilot of merit. I'm proud of him and his service.
The Boston Globe is an ultra liberal, pro-gay, pro-abortion, pro-feminist, anti-Christian rag which is mostly read by the type of person who wouldn't vote Republican if the candidate were their own mother.
FR is a tough place when in election mode. Welcome
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