Posted on 09/22/2004 4:30:33 PM PDT by topdog1
“The subject started when (Bush’s) daddy ran for vice president, and it’s been going on ever since,” he said. “I don’t have much to tell. It’s simple to me. There was no political influence. That’s the truth.”
more at http://herald-zeitung.com/story.lasso?ewcd=a52a42e53f6b2fed
(Excerpt) Read more at herald-zeitung.com ...
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,133053,00.html ^
BYRON YORK, "NATIONAL REVIEW" WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, in May 1968, he signed up for six years in the Guard. And I think there is a kind of popular impression that his father got him in, he didn't show up and then he got out early. But that really kind of ignores what happened during his term in the Guard.
HUME: Byron, one quick question.
YORK: Sure.
HUME: Could his unit have been called up and could he have ended up in Vietnam?
YORK: Yes. It could indeed have happened.
HUME: But it didn't. It just didn't happen.
YORK: It did not happen.
HUME: Right.
YORK: But the first thing Bush did is that he underwent 53 weeks of flight training.
HUME: Is he full time in the Guard now?
YORK: This is not 53 weekends. This is 53 weeks of full-time flight training. You don't learn how to fly a fighter plane in a couple of weeks. Then he went to 21 additional weeks, full-time, of flight interceptor training because the F-102 plane he flew was an interceptor fighter. And then he went to additional training. And when you add it all together, to begin with, he went to about two years of full-time active duty training. After that, he did settle into the flying several times a month routine that Air National Guard officers were doing at the time. And he racked up hundreds and hundreds of hours doing it. So really in his first four years, he was actually quite active in the Guard.
HUME: Now, I take it that Guard service is measured and credit given by the National Guard on the basis of points.
YORK: Right. The way it was measured there were points that you, as a Guardsman, accumulated toward your retirement. And the minimum standard per year, as a Guardsman, was that you had to get 50 points. And so one thing you can do with the records that the White House released is look through...
HUME: Now, we've got a table here showing what your investigation indicated he earned, right?
YORK: These are things added up from the documents the White House released in February. And they show that in his first full year, which was May '68 to May '69, Bush accumulated more than 253 points, next year 340, next year 137, then 112. What you can see is in the last two years of his six-year commitment, he gets just 56 points a year, which is very close, just above the minimum of 50 that you need to accumulate each year.
HUME: Now, some questions have been raised about those last two years and perhaps about these points. Explain how he did get those points, if you can.
YORK: Well, as you know, in the spring of 1972, he asked to leave Texas to go to Alabama to work on a Senate campaign. He was granted permission to go to an Air National Guard base in Alabama. And he missed several months. I mean there are several months in 1972 where he did not show up. There is no record that he showed up for duty in Alabama.
HUME: So a guy doesn't show up for duty. Is that in itself enough to mean that you haven't met your requirements?
YORK: Not that I understand it. The people who were in the Guard at the time tell me that this was not at all uncommon.
HUME: So what did you do then?
YORK: Well, you made it up. So what Bush did was in late 1972 and early 1973, you can see different periods in which he had kind of a flurry of activity, in which he went to drills enough to accumulate more than the minimum of points that he needed. It was nothing like he had done in the first couple of years where he got hundreds of points, but it was more than what was required. Then, as you know, he asked to be let out of his Guard service completely to go to Harvard Business School.
HUME: Now, that would have been prior to the end of the six-year period, correct?
YORK: That's exactly right.
HUME: Now that was the period where there are some documents suggesting that this is when he going to go to Boston, right? And to go to what? Harvard Business School (search).
YORK: Exactly.
HUME: Some documents indicated he was supposed to find a unit up there to report to, but he never did. What about that?
YORK: Well, as I understand it, in May 1973, the sixth year began. And in June and July, he did a lot of activity, accumulated 56 points just in those two months. So he kind of covered it. He asked for a discharge in October, was granted an honorable discharge from the Air National Guard. And as I understand it, that ended his...
HUME: And by that time, he did have enough points?
YORK: He did. And that ended his obligation. So he served five years and four months of a six-year...
HUME: So he didn't need to report in Boston? Legitimately didn't need to report?
YORK: No. It was after he received his honorable discharge, he did not have a further obligation.
HUME: All right. Well, not at great length but very succinctly, that seems to be what George Bush did to get his points.
Thank you, Byron.
YORK: Thank you.
(“I have watched CBS News since Walter Cronkite was there,” he said. “I won’t be watching them anymore. I don’t like it when people lie.”)
These says it all!
Where is Hannity when you need him? I'm tired of seeing the son of Lt. Col. Jerry Killian. Staudt would be the more valuable guest.
Here is a litte part of the article from an ABC interview done on Sept 9. It never got any traction. It's a repeat.
Staudt said he decided to come forward because he saw erroneous reports on television. CBS News first reported on the memos, which have come under scrutiny by document experts who question whether they are authentic. Killian, the purported author of the documents, died in 1984.
Staudt insisted Bush did not use connections to avoid being sent to Vietnam.
"He didn't use political influence to get into the Air National Guard," Staudt said, adding, "I don't know how they would know that, because I was the one who did it and I was the one who was there and I didn't talk to any of them."
‘Highly Qualified’
During his time in charge of the unit, Staudt decided whether to accept those who applied for pilot training. He recalled Bush as a standout candidate. "He was highly qualified," he said. "He passed all the scrutiny and tests he was given."
Staudt said he never tried to influence Killian or other Guardsmen, and added that he never came under any pressure himself to accept Bush. "No one called me about taking George Bush into the Air National Guard," he said. "It was my decision. I swore him in. I never heard anything from anybody."
When he interviewed for the job, Bush was eager to join the pilot program, which Staudt said often was a hard sell. "I asked him, 'Why do you want to be a fighter pilot?' " Staudt recalled. "He said, 'Because my daddy was one.' He was a well-educated, bright-eyed young man, just the kind of guy we were looking for."
He added that Bush more than met the requirements for pilot training. "He presented himself well. I'd say he was in the upper 10 percent or 5 percent or whatever we ever talked to about going to pilot training. We were pretty particular because when he came back [from training], we had to fly with him."
Bush has repeatedly said he completed all of his Guard commitments. Critics of the president say he got special treatment because his father was a congressman and U.N. ambassador. There also have been questions about why the young Bush skipped a required medical exam in 1972 and apparently failed to show up for Guard activities for six months.
Records show Bush stopped flying F-102As in April 1972. He has said he moved to Alabama to work on the Senate campaign of a family friend. Staudt retired from the Guard in March of that year and said he was never contacted about Bush's performance.
"There was no contact between me and George Bush … he certainly never asked for help," Staudt said. "He didn't need any help as far as I knew."
He added that after retiring he was not involved in Air National Guard affairs. "I didn't check in with anybody — I had no reason to," he said. "I was busy with my civilian endeavors, and they were busy with their military options. I had no reason to talk to them, and I didn't."
Staudt said he continues to support Bush now that he is president. "My politics now are that I'm an American, and that's about all I can tell you," he said. "And I'm going to vote for George Bush."
Thanks for posting. That was a great interview.
“I have watched CBS News since Walter Cronkite was there,” [Staudt] said. “I won’t be watching them anymore. I don’t like it when people lie.”
I was puzzled when ABC News online broke their Staudt "no influence" interview as an exclusive last week, then ABC World News Tonight had nothing that evening about him, zippo, nada. Does anybody know whether the Staudt interview story ever did get on the air at ABC News? Or did they spike it for some reason?
I read somewhere that the TANG was actually advertising for qualified pilots in '68. It would be a real scoop to find a copy of one of those ads. "We'll see your forgery, and raise you an authentic AND accurate."
I don't understand why the media is ignoring what this guy says.
Bump for that.
He also mentioned on a Fox & Friends interview that Bush applied for a program called "Palace Alert" that would have possibly put him in Vietnam. As I understand it, they were winding down F-102 involvement in 'Nam at the time and Bush was turned down for lack of hours in the F-102.
Grabbing a Slot In the National Guard
It doesn't fit their agenda. Truth? What truth?!
They don't want the truth out!
If they advertised in large metropolitan papers, it is possible someone in Texas could find the ad. In Indianapolis, you can access microfiche rolls of newspapers going back to the turn of the century. I bet Dallas and Houston have the same sort of service. It would take a lot of work, but I bet that ad could be found.
The CBS spokesperson gave the excuse that would come in handy all over: Something like, "Well, you would expect HIM to deny it, wouldn't you?" But even ABC didn't give it much play (to my knowledge), and it was their interview! I want to know more about that one!
The amazing thing is that the Staudt comments directly answered Rather's charge that nobody had disproven the basis of the story, ie, "Documents fake, story true". If you were paying attention Dan, you might have known that the guy who selected and swore Bush in might be considered an adequate source to disprove the story!
That is accurate, when I was at Lackland undergoing basic it was so crowded that they moved us up to Amarillo AFB on night on buses - and we spent the first week just cleaning up old WWII barracks.
Only after that were we allowed to complete our basic training.
I admire Staudt. I don't like it when people lie either.
“I asked him why he wanted to be a pilot, and he said it was because his daddy was one. That’s a good reason,” he said.
This comment endeared both G.W. and Staudt even more to my heart. The Liberals will never understand this statement. In its simplicity Staudt reveals it is honorable for a son to follow in his father's footsteps, especially in service to one's country. He gets it. So does G.W. and it is endearing to know he wanted to honor his father even at a young age. The Libs just do not understand the young G.W. respected his father, almost a case of hero worship. He attempted to follow his path and, in so doing, discovered his own.
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