Bush’s commander, dad wrote each other

NBC News and news services ^

[jseth]

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon Friday released more documents on President Bush’s Vietnam-era Air National Guard Service, including a letter from his then-congressman father George Bush thanking a general for “taking interest in a brand new Air Force trainee.”

Dozens of pages of documents, including historical records of the Air Guard unit in which Bush served, were released on orders from the White House. His National Guard service, which critics have charged was performed to avoid going into combat, has become an issue of contention in the presidential race.

“That a major general in the Air Force would take interest in a brand new Air Force trainee made a big impression on me,” then Texas Rep. George Bush wrote to Maj. Gen. G.B. Greene Jr., commander of the Lackland Air Force Base Military Training Center, on Sept. 11, 1968.

George Bush, who himself also later became president, referred to a letter that he had received from Greene and said that his son was “anxiously looking forward to going to flight school and, with parental pride, I do have the feeling that he will be a gung ho member of the U.S. Air Force.”

The letter was written shortly after young Bush joined the Guard for pilot training. He later switched to the Alabama Air National Guard, and records released to date by the White House have not settled a controversy over allegations that Bush did not complete required training there.

“I was surprised and very, very pleased to receive your letter of August 27th,” Bush’s father said in the letter, which was written on congressional stationery. The file does not contain Greene’s letter to Bush’s father, but shows the letter his father wrote back.

Bush’s father, a naval flier who served in the Pacific in World War II, said in his one-page letter to Greene that young Bush “was particularly enthusiastic about the dedication of the men he met” and kept his parents up the first night home talking about the training.

“In this day and age when it has become a little bit fashionable to be critical of the military, I was delighted to see him return to our house with a real pride in the service and with a great respect for the leaders that he had encountered at Lackland,” the elder Bush wrote.

“General Greene, this is a personal letter but I did want to write to you from the heart and thank you for what you, Sgt. (Henry) Onacki and the others are doing, and obviously doing well,” Bush concluded.

The letter and other material were the latest in a stream of documents surfacing about Bush’s service three decades ago during the Vietnam War, when Bush’s critics say he got preferential treatment as the son of a congressman and U.N. ambassador. Critics have also questioned why Bush skipped a required medical examination in 1972 and failed to show up for drills during a six-month period that year.

The White House has said repeatedly that all of Bush’s Guard records have been disclosed, only to be embarrassed when new documents have turned up. The long-running story took an unusual turn when CBS uncovered documents purportedly showing that Bush refused orders to take a physical examination in 1972 — but then the authenticity of the documents came under doubt.

In addition to the letter from Bush’s father, the documents contain news releases that the Texas Air National Guard sent to Houston newspapers in 1970 about young Bush, then a second lieutenant and new pilot.

“George Bush is one member of the younger generation who doesn’t get his kicks from pot or hashish or speed,” one news release said. “Oh, he gets high, all right, but not from narcotics.”

The press release and others from the Texas Air National Guard were disclosed to the media, including NBC News, in 1999, but have resurfaced amid the current furor over the president's military service.

[tvn]

Now this is CLASS! Bush as his best. Hey Union thugs, do you like apples?
US News ^ | JohnK.

Posted on 09/17/2004 6:52:35 PM PDT by jsk10

If the picture of little 3-year-old Sophia Parlock crying after some Kerry-Edwards supporters tore up her Bush-Cheney poster got to you, well, you weren't the only one. President Bush and even first pup Barney were dismayed too, we hear. It happened at a West Virginia rally last week for Democratic running mate Sen. John Edwards, to which Phil Parlock brought his daughter. After seeing the picture of the tearful Sophia on her dad's shoulders, aides said the president was sending her a little note Friday along with a signed campaign poster and an autographed photo of the prez and his dog. "Dear Sophia," Bush penned, "Thank you for supporting my campaign. I understand someone tore up your sign. So I am sending you a new sign and a signed picture. Please give my best to your family. Sincerely, George W. Bush." And on the picture, he inked: "To Sophia, Best wishes from me and Barney." Phil Parlock tells us it really wasn't necessary. "He already said 'Thank you' when he hugged her" at a previous Bush rally they attended, he says. "She bragged for days."