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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.
The other time Copeland remembers meeting Bush was at the base canteen. Bush was there drinking coffee or a soft drink, Copeland said.
Copeland stressed that Calhoun's account of Bush's service in Montgomery would be accurate because Calhoun was in a position to work with Bush during every drill. Calhoun told The Associated Press last week that he saw Bush every drill time, which was one weekend each month.
Not only was Calhoun in a position to know of Bush's service, Copeland said, but Calhoun "was an ethical and honest officer."
No easy treatment
The suggestion that he or anyone else gave Bush a break because of the family legacy bothers Copeland.
"You hear people saying that everybody (at Dannelly) knew the Bushes. Well, that's just a lie," Copeland said. "He was just another pilot. No one paid any more attention to him than to anyone else. There was no hoopla."
Copeland said Bush trained on an F-106 fighter plane in Texas, so he was not qualified to fly the planes at Dannelly. Dannelly had F-84 Thunderjets and, later, F-4 Phantoms.
The issue of whether Bush skipped his Air National Guard duties is not a new one.
Some Democrats have long questioned whether Bush continued his drills while absent from Texas for Blount's campaign.
Bush Press Secretary Scott McClellan said Friday that the White House is making no effort to locate people who could document Bush's service.
Joe Holcombe, 71, of Joppa worked with Bush on the Blount campaign. He told THE DAILY last week that he remembers Bush missing at least one campaign meeting because of his National Guard drills.
While Copeland said he thinks claims that Bush was AWOL are baseless, he said one thing puzzles him.
"All Bush would have to do to get proof of his Alabama service is pick up the phone and contact military records," he said. "It seems a little odd that he hasn't done that."
Copeland also is puzzled by dental records that Bush produced as evidence of his duties at Dannelly.
"We had no dentist at Dannelly Field," Copeland said. "The only dentists were at Maxwell (Air Force Base)."
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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."