Within 24 hours there were over 40 lines of evidence demonstrating that the documents were false. There ended up being around 70 separate lines of evidence demonstrating that. Among these was the known fact that George Bush wasn’t even due to have his flight physical at the time stated in those documents, as the schedule for those was specific to his birth month which was not to occur for months.
Reinforcing your point...
Moreover, all of the National Guard terminology and procedure was unique to the Army National Guard, rather than the Air National Guard. Thus was the finger pointed directly at Bill Burkett as the initiator of the documents -- a retiree from the Army guard, a liberal activist, a long-time Bush-hater...and an associate of Rather's daughter. Not to mention a little bit wacky.
Rather's producer, Mary Mapes, faxed the documents to CBS from a Kinko's in Abilene, TX -- about twenty miles from Burkett's Baird, TX home.