Posted on 09/10/2004 11:52:21 AM PDT by ArmyBratproud
I was watching Linda Vester's show on FNC today. The issue of the fake memos was reported on. They cut to James Rosen at the White House. He reported on what we all now know. That it looks that the 60 Min. Memos are fake. He mentioned Killian's family saying that they think it is a farse.
Then he did something that still makes me wonder if I am hearing things.
Rosen reported that one of the people who is contesting the documents (I did not catch the name. It may have been a document) as saying that Bush volunteered for the Palace Alert program that sent Guard pilots to Vietnam. Rosen explained what Palace Alert was. He reported that Bush tried to get into the program twice.
I know that we have already talked about this on FR, but I was shocked to hear it mentioned on Fox News Channel.
I am just trying to make sure I did not imagine it. It was in Rosen's first report during Vester's show.
Did anybody else see this?
I saw it. It seems that Bush applied twice but was turned down due to lack of flight time.
By the time he did have enough hours, his jet, the F-102, had been pulled out of VN service.
I heard Killian's son on Tony Snow (radio show) say that Bush had volunteered for Vietnam but did not have the requisite number of flying hours. Tried to get that waived -- asked several times.
The crash/death rate for this jet was very, very high and they only wanted experienced pilots going to Nam.
why are you shocked?
Do a search here in Free Republic under Bush Vietnam.
There are several threads on it, and we just bumped one about a month ago.
The son called into the Tony Snow radio program this morning. Also stated that he had talked briefly to CBS a couple weeks ago. They just asked him a few questions, he told them he didn't know a whole lot. He gave them names of some other military they could talk to. CBS responed that they had talked to one, but he was a Bush supporter so he wasn't credible.
I saw that, too. It was Killian's son who told Rosen.
Bump to find later
JAMES ROSEN [FOX NEWS]: Today Fox News has spoken with Jerry Killian's son Jerry, who sent us a picture of his father. Gary says the papers did not come from the Killian family, and they strike him as dubious. Three of these memos are written to the file, and one of them is captioned CYA, which for Gary Killian was the tipoff that these papers were not his Dad's work product.
GARY KILLIAN [PHONE]: I can tell you that he did not type memos to himsef. There's a lot of reasons why he wouldn't do that. One is that it was too much effort, another is that it was just not a very good practice. It's very dangerous to keep memos like that; nothing really good could from it, I don't know. And I'm not sure even whether those reflected his true feelings about Lt Bush.
ROSEN: Indeed, Killian says his father told him, back in 1980 or 1981 when they sat in an Officers' Club in San Antonio, that Lt Bush twice volunteered for a program called "Palace Alert", under which Texas Air National Guard pilots could volunteer to serve one year on active duty, flying their planes in VietNam. And that twice, Lt Bush was turned down in those requests because he did not have enough flight hours in the air.
ROSEN:The CYA memo especially raised son Gary Killian's suspicions about the documents attributed to his father. And in that interview Gary Killian said it would imply that there was severe pressure being put on him to forge or alter a rating on a particular officer. Gary Killian said I have a problem with that to begin with, but moreover, it would imply that he was willing to do that, and it would also imply that he was putting a letter to a secret file to cover himself in case anything ever happened. And Gary Killian concluded, I think all three of those premises are false.
that should read "Jerry Killian's son GARY".
Fred Bradley, a fellow pilot who had about the same experience as the then 1st Lt. Bush, confirms that he and 1st Lt Bush and two other more experienced pilots volunteered for Palace Alert but he and 1st Lt Bush were rejected because of their inexperience. They other two pilots were selected.
http://www.nationalreview.com/babbin/babbin200402190855.asp
Thanks for the reprint- I had been looking for that letter.
Also, at that time, the US military involvement in VN was winding down, and Guard units in general weren't being utilized as they had been earlier in the war. In addition, F-102s (Bush's aircraft) squadron's weren't being deployed to VN, but were being assigned to homeland air defense (for what they were originally designed for).
Thank you for reposting the Colonel's letter.
People who don't want the truth saturating America hate things like that, and people such as the author who have facts and write well, and comprehensively.
It's not like that letter hasn't been out there for the Old Media to peruse.
I understand that Kerry is going to speak to a national guard group tomorrow or sometime soon. What kind of reception do you all think he will get. Hopefully they will stand and turn around while he speaks. Any info
Ex-pilot says Bush put in for Vietnam
Bush volunteered for combat, was rejected, ex-guardsman says
BY PETER BACQUE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Feb 13, 2004
A former senior Virginia Air National Guard commander, who served with George W. Bush in the Texas Air Guard, says Bush volunteered for Vietnam combat service but was turned down because he did not have the required flight experience.
William J. Campenni, a retired Air Guard colonel, also said absences such as Bush's from his unit were common in the Air Guard during the period of Bush's service and still are.
He and Bush were young lieutenants and pilots in the 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron of the Texas Air Guard from 1970 to 1971, Campenni said, serving under the same flight and squadron commanders, both of whom are now dead.
Campenni, 63, lives in Herndon and has participated in Republican Party politics in Northern Virginia. He retired as an Air Force pilot in 1998, last flying with the 192nd Fighter Wing based at Richmond International Airport.
According to Campenni, Bush inquired about participating in a volunteer program called Palace Alert that used Air National Guard pilots flying in the F-102 Delta Dagger interceptor jet in Vietnam.
The Air Guard advised Bush he did not have the desired 500 hours of flight time as a pilot to qualify for Palace Alert duty, and, in any event, the program was winding down and not accepting more volunteers.
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031773659263&path=!news&s=1045855934842
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