Posted on 10/26/2004 11:18:26 PM PDT by Technical Editor
WASHINGTON Oct 26, 2004 Unearthed under legal pressure, three-decade-old documents portray President Bush as a capable and well-liked Air National Guard pilot who stopped flying and attending regular drills two-thirds of the way through his six-year commitment without consequence.
The files, many of them forced to light by Freedom of Information lawsuits by The Associated Press, conflict with some of the harshest attacks Democrats have levied on Bush's Vietnam-era service, such as suggestions that Bush was a deserter or absent without leave.
But gaps in the records leave unanswered questions about the final two years of his military service in 1972 and 1973. Chief among them: Why did Bush's commanders apparently tolerate his lapses in training and approve his honorable discharge?
Bush's commanders could have punished him or ordered him to two years of active duty for missing drills for six months in 1972 and skipping a required pilot's medical exam. Instead, they allowed him to make up some of his missed training and granted him an honorable discharge.
Bush, Kerry Trade National Security Barbs The Note: A Lifetime in Politics Noted Now: The Latest Breaking Political News "Obviously, the commander saw the lieutenant's interest in the guard was waning," said retired Maj. Gen. Paul A. Weaver Jr., a former head of the Air National Guard. "Had he been good before? Yeah. Does that mean he should nail him to the wall? No. The culture at the time was not to enforce that."
But the culture apparently did not apply to everyone. Although no records mention any punishment against Bush other than being grounded, the Texas unit's files show another airman was ordered to involuntary active duty in March 1972 as punishment.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
PATHETIC!
I think this may hurt Kerry.
The AP has bad timing.
Over the next two days....there will be more and more on the fact that the NY Times and CBS News planned the bogus peice on the missing explosives.
IT WILL REMIND PEOPLE OF MEMOGATE!
So if they hear anymore of the Guard stuff....they will just get turned off.
REMEMBER- even before the Memos were shown as forged....Polls were showing that people did not care about Bush's Guard record.
I can't take it anymore! On my homepage, Yahoo had this, but not a mention of the phoney weapons story! I think I'll sleep til Nov. 3rd.!!!!
And this kind of stuff is all you really need to know that there 'really' is a Bush lead that will likely lead to a strong (if not an overwhelming) electoral colleve victory for him.
Aren't the Swifties about to unload some ads about Kerry's dishonorable discharge?
---6. March 1974 - November 1974, air liaison officer and forward air controller, 19th Tactical Air Support Squadron, Republic of Korea Tiger Division, Camp Red Cloud, Osan Air Base, Korea---
He was at CRC same time as me!
<Yawn And the point is what, exactly???
Did I just hear that Kerry was in Vietnam?
Take a look at the article....
It looks like every thing in it is stuff that is from old articles.......and they just repackaged it into a new article.
I don't see where anything they are using is stuff that is any newer than the memogate stuff.
These democraps are really desperate. They have Zero confidence in their candidate.
The media is determined to try to drag Kerry across the finish line even if it kills their credibility and makes them look like clowns.
BINGO!
I believe that trotting out the Texas Guard story is more like Joseph Goebell's big lie. Tell a whopper, keep repeating it, and people will start to believe it.
Come to think of it, this characterizes the entire Kerry campaign.
Hey, it characterizes the way John Edwards corruptly earned his millions claiming natural childbirth causes CP.
Hmmm, it also charactizes Jessie Jackson's claims that a million African American voters were disenfranchised.
You know, this completely characterizes the entire left.
I guess that's all you have left when you've lost the rational, intellectual, cognitive, reasoned, proven, practical, empirically proven argument every time you've been challenged.
So he & AP say.
Did YOU see him there? Can YOU confirm his presence? Do YOU remember seeing him?
I want all of his records to confirm this.
Also, looks like he spent a suspiciously long time as a "student pilot"....
I also want to see the "reporter's" journalism school and enployment records to make sure he is qualified to write what he purports to have written.
Makes about as much sense as what they're trying to peddle.
When is AP going to write about the story that the New York Sun and WND broke last night about Kerry's treasonous acts?
I guess if you allegedly miss a couple of drills, it's a big deal, but if you commit treason, it's nothing. After all, what's a little treason amongst DemocRATS and their media whore friends.
This is laughable. The MSM just doesn't understand how ridiculous they look, and they certainly don't understand anything about the military, much less the ANG.
I'll be so glad when this election is finally over!!!
The AP, aided by ABCNews, is once again trotting out this non-story.
"AP Exclusive Finds New Documents on President Bush Service in Nat'l Guard Leave Many Questions" - PLEASE.
HOW ABOUT NEVER ONCE ASKING THE QUESTION AS TO WHY ALL OF KERRY'S DOCUMENTS REMAIN SEALED???
Here we are again being subjected to having the MSM trying to come up with dirt for the thousandth time, while Kerry receives a complete pass.
Pathetic...truly pathetic.
---Did YOU see him there? Can YOU confirm his presence? Do YOU remember seeing him?---
No, and it isn't as if there were a whole lot of us there. Plus, I was in a central position to see almost everyone at the 125th Med Det.
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