Posted on 09/09/2004 7:55:59 AM PDT by pabianice
On a previous thread the author makes excellent points about the anachronism error in the "memos" the Liberals have recently "discovered" regarding George Bush's alleged "desertion" and "dereliction of duty" while in the Texas ANG.
A look at these memos shows another problem. A big problem. To understand it, you have to understand a bit about the military. In official documents of any kind, proper rank abbreviations are strictly enforced, to the point that, if they are incorrect, the document has to be destroyed and rewritten. A document forwarded with incorrect acronyms is returned for resubmittal.
The "memos" the Liberal Gang has "discovered," showing Bush to have been a shirker, all carry a consistent incorrect abbreviation for his rank. The only acceptable abbreviation for a USAF or ANG first lieutenant is "1LT." I have also seen, rarely, it written "1/LT," although this is the exception. All the "recently discovered" memos about Bush say "1stLt." While I am Navy and not Air Force, to the best of my knowledge, this is not allowed, let alone a mispunctuated memo addressed to Bush as "1stLt.3244754FG."
I am willing to bet a week's pay that these memos are forgeries.
Interesting. Can any military Freepers corroborate?
A timeline history of the IBM Typewriter with old ads to show what the machines looked like. Click on the thumbnail to see an enlargement of that ad.
http://www.etypewriters.com/history.htm
Ping
Quite true.
There are a couple of threads like this going, Howlin is trying to get all the info consolidated in one place. Could you repost your info here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1210702/posts?q=1&&page=301
Also, AM, how can we best get these threads consolidated, so we don't miss some great investigative reporting from FReepers? Thanks!
Done.
Ping
It's not too early to go with this. Get it to the entire blogosphere, the New Media will follow, and CBS will take a major slam.
Don't suppose you could just tell us if the variable spacing statement is true or not?
Yep when I address a letter to my daughter it's 2DLT NOT 2nd Lt.
Almost forgot. The third "Bush Memo" is also misspelled. The correct abbreviation for lieutenant colonel on any ANG document is "LtCol," not "Lt. Colonel." Any LtCol would know better than to misspell his own rank.
<p.
These "documents" reek of fraud.
bttt
It seems there would be a finite number of typewriters used within the unit that authored the memos. Since typewriters have a unique signature, why not see if the memos correlate with any of the other documents done by this unit?
It shouldn't be too hard to establish given the volumes of paperwork generated by the military at the time.
After 20 years in the Army I can testify to the fact that rank abbreviations was/is a sore point in all military correspondence. I've never, never seen it abbreviated 1stLt. except by journalists in the press.
In official documents of any kind, proper rank abbreviations are strictly enforced, to the point that, if they are incorrect, the document has to be destroyed and rewritten
Thank you.
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