Bush Served His Country Without Pay

The following is a post written by a regular reader of this site known to those who visit the comments section as "Oak Leaf". He is an active reservist with over twenty years of service that includes both the National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve. He has extensive experience in personnel programs management and has served on the faculty at a senior service college. Air Guard Service Without Pay

When George W. Bush joined the Texas Air National Guard, a component of the US Air Force, he entered into a six year statutory service obligation. On December 1, 1969 he signed DD Form 1644 "Ready Reserve Service Agreement" which states, "I agree to be a member of the Ready Reserve until 26 May 1974." I first need to explain that the ready reserve is all reserve soldiers that are members of both "drilling units" and to the "individual ready reserve" which is simply a pool of individuals that can be called to active duty. When you review the "officer record brief" of 1LT George W. Bush, you find that on October 1, 1973 he was discharged from the Texas Air National Guard and re-assigned to the Air Reserve Personnel Center (Individual Ready Reserve). He remained assigned to the Air Reserve Personnel Center until he was ultimately discharged the following May. To a civilian this is slightly confusing because the Texas discharge makes it appear that he was completely discharged from the military, but this is not correct. The discharge simply reflects that he is no longer affiliated with the Military Department of the State of Texas. Yes, each state has a "Military Department."

With every enlistment in the reserves an "Acknowledgement of Service Obligations" is part of the enlistment contract. It states, "You will be required to attend all scheduled unit training assemblies unless you are excused by proper authority. If you accrue 9 or more unexcused absences during any continuous 365 day period you may be declared an unsatisfactory participant." Each month a reserve unit is required to complete a "Record of Reserve Training" that lists all assigned members of that unit. Each four hour period on that list represents a training assembly and you will be coded with either P (present), E (excused), U (unexcused) or ET/RST ("other training"). Had 1LT Bush received nine U's he would have been declared an unsatisfactory participant. If you missed two weekends and one morning you would have 9 U's. Because this never occurred, it means that he was either granted E's as an excused absence or performed equivalent training (ET). That alone verifies he met his obligation

The old media remains extremely focused on the performance of duties that meets that old saying, "one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer." That saying falls in line with "my recruiter lied to me." Civilians would be astonished to discover that many reservists perform duties without pay. In reviewing my own records, 13% of my reserve man days in my first six years were without pay and surprisingly while a college student, 21% of my reserve man days were performed without pay. A search of the web led me to AF Form 1288 (front/back) in which 1LT Bush requests duty in Alabama on May 24, 1972. Block 17 shows that the request is "no pay, training category G." In the approval section, it is clearly disclosed that this is "pay group none." Why is this important? Regardless, of the ultimate unit he ended up training with, it shows that 1LT Bush was willing to train without pay. The old media remains focused on pay records!! In regards to pay records, USA Today states, "They show he was paid for 82 days in 1972 and 1973, but show no service for five months between April and October 1972." Pay records would show no service during this time period because he was not paid! 1LT Bush served his country without pay. That is why there is no pay record.

1LT Bush can be "faulted" for one thing and that is keeping his retirement points correct. I need to point out that, "It is the soldier's responsibility to insure that his or her retirement points are correct."

1LT Bush was "responsible" for getting those retirement points posted to his record. I would assume that the records were sent forward and there was never any follow up because he chose not to serve 20 years. Because he earned at least 50 points for each year of service meeting the requirement of a satisfactory year there was just no incentive to pursue further record updating. In my own reserve career, I am still trying to correct unpaid duty records that go back 20 years. I have three comments on Oak Leaf's post. First, I want to thank him for taking the time to review these documents and to write such a detailed, yet clear and easy to follow analysis. Second, I think one reason the media has done such a pathetic job covering these matters is because they do not have enough people within their ranks with any military experience. Third, this point that Oak Leaf makes illustrates one more stark contrast between President Bush and Senator Kerry. Bush evidently worked without pay, and probably, due to inadequate follow-up on the paperwork, without any recognition for that time. John Kerry went to ridiculous lengths to document every bruise and scratch he got in Vietnam, and to make sure every activity he was engaged in was not only written up for awards, but was even recreated and memorialized on film. Isn't that just everything voters need to know about the character of these two men in a nutshell?

The 2-drill per day criterion has an interesting history.

Reserve or militia drills were originally accounted during the early years of our country by dedicating one day per week for drilling or rehearsing maneuvers by the reserve/militia. Christmas and July 4th were reserved as formal holidays and excuse from any formally paid drilling.

From those 52 weeks minus 2 holiday weeks came the 50 drills a year criterion for a satisfactory year for longevity and retirement purposes.

It was also during this period that the 4 hour criterion was adopted as a minimim time period fro a 'drill'. in that many reservists/militiamen had to journey by horseback some distance to get to a drilling assembly area.

Circa WWI, tactics and demographics had changed considerably, and it was recognized that more training could be performed by field maneuvers over a several day period. The 50 drills/yr amd 4 hr min drill period remained as regulatory constraints for federal pay/ Within those constraints, and larger regions to recruit servicemen, came arguments for a weeken drill per month en lieu of a one day drill per week. More training value was actually obtained and less percentage of the serviceman's time wasted on travel.

Accordingly, the weekend drill was adopted and the 4 hr drill period remained.

What varies today is travel pay. For many years, even for drills in remote locations, travel from home to the assembly area was the serviceman's burden, while travel while under orders was a government expense. The grey area comes in discerning whether the servicemen is obligated to remain faithful to all regulations 24-7 even in civilian status as is customary, or if his obligation only commences upon assembly at the reserve center.

I know of many situations where servicemen paid their entire paychecks and more simply to travel to drills without reimbursment for much of their career, while 20 years later, their juniors also receive milage and perdiem venturing to the drill site. Many of these situations vary from command to command and interpretation of the regs over time.

On top of these requirements came the 2-week active duty periods which only changed in formal nature about 15 years ago. IDT prior to this wasn't recognized, rather a rule that while in uniform the servicemember had the same obligations and privledges as a regular.

Over the past 20 years there also had been considerations to migrate from a weekend drill plus 2 week active duty routine to a 6 week contiguous active duty period, because in more modern maneuver warfare environments and higher tech battlefields, some argue more training and unit performance is enhanced by a longer active duty environment. 3 days without sleep doesn;t compare to a 6 wk intensive training environment for skill retention.

The arguments today might be even more persuasive considering the pressure on civilian job markets by extensive overseas deployments by reservists.

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