Debunking The Bush AWOL Story - From The Horse's Mouth

Brig. Gen. Turnipseed | February 6, 2004 | Hon

[Hon]

I just got off the phone about an hour ago with Brig. Gen. William R. Turnipseed. He is the sole source for the four year old story that Bush was AWOL during his National Guard service.

Mr. Turnipseed is very unhappy with the way what he said "casually" four years ago has been twisted by the "Bush haters" (his words) in the media, especially the Boston Globe (who first reported the story) and the New York Times.

In a nutshell here is what happened, according to Turnipseed. Back in 1972 his Alabama National Guard unit received a letter from Bush (who was in the Texas Nation Guard) asking if he while he was in Alabama do some equivalancy training with the Alabama unit.

Turnipseed said that this request was as a matter of routine turned over to his administrative assistant, Lott, who wrote back to Bush, giving him the dates of the next unit drills. Lott told Bush he could report for those dates.

Neither Turnipseed nor Lott can now remember whether Bush appeared for these drills or not. Turnipseed says he himself might not have even been around the base at the time, so he wouldn't know one way or the other. And he says he has always said this.

The points Turnipseed wanted to stress are these: Bush was never ordered to report for duty to his unit. Since Bush was in the Texas National Guard and Turnipseed was in the Alabama National Guard, he couldn't have ordered him even if he had wanted to. But he didn't want to.

He (or his assistant, Lott) simply gave Bush the dates he could report if he wanted to do equivalency training with them. There were no orders given. If he showed up or didn't show up, it wasn't their concern.

Additionally, Turnipseed says that he never once said anything about Bush being "AWOL." He said it isn't even a term used in the National Guard. And anyway, as already noted, Bush's training record was not his concern, but the Texas National Guard's.

He said that since the Texas National Guard gave him an honorable discharge it shows that he fulfilled his training requirements.

Turnipseed said that the media has constantly misrepresented what he said and edited him so as to make Bush look bad.

He also said that he had no idea who Bush was, and that he certainly didn't do him any special favors. Nor would he have.

He said that when he first spoke to the Boston Globe reporter about this four years ago he didn't realize he was talking to a "Bush hater."

Turnipseed is a strong Bush supporter. He said that he has been contacted many times especially recently, by "Bush haters" in the media, who try to get him to say that Bush was AWOL. Once they realize that he won't cooperate they lose interest in talking to him. When they do quote him, they say he is backpedaling--even though he is still saying the same exact thing he told them four years ago.

He has been recently asked to go on with Peter Jennings and NBC's Dateline, but he is concerned that they will edit him in such a way as to misrepresent his story again. I have been in touch with Fox news, in hopes that they will have somebody talk to him and try to present his story fairly.

Bottom line, this whole AWOL story was media spin from the git-go. The Boston Globe reporter simply cherry picked Turnipseed's comments and totally misrepresented him--to make Bush look bad.

And the media are still doing it four years later. They should be ashamed--but they have no shame. They have only their agenda.

[Herodotus]

For the sake of historians, who will most certainly make use of this story in accounts of the Bush presidency (regardless of their political alignment), I stronly urge you to get Turnipseed to put this down on paper, in a letter or some kind of document that can be upheld as a legitimate source in years to come. If necessary, one of the FReepers on here who is a lawyer can say better what form it should take.

The point is that in the years to come Mr. Turnipseed will no longer be around to put his viewpoint out there, and all that will remain are these secondhand accounts. If he needs to set the record straight, then something firm should be put down on paper. If necessary, have him write it up in an op-ed piece...anything. Just so long as it becomes a legitimate source.

[hole_n_one]

It's also curious to note how this "awol" charge didn't resurface again until AFTER Dean was knocked from his perch and the "war hero" became the front runner.

[terilyn]

Brit's the best!

[NYCVirago]

Good work. Bump!

[hole_n_one]

Good job and welcome to FR, Hon!

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"...asking if he while he was in Alabama..."??

Thanks for posting this. I bet you were typing at light-speed.

If you could flesh out what Turnipseed was being asked by GWB, that would be great. Thanks.

[Amelia]

(I wish people would show this much curiosity about important matters.)

I figured you thought it was pretty important or you wouldn't have posted an entire thread about it....

[Lancey Howard]

BUMP

[Andy from Chapel Hill]

Here is the GEORGE magazine article that answers the question.

The Real Military Record of George W. Bush: Not Heroic, but Not AWOL, Either

Politics/Elections Front Page News Keywords: AWOL, BUSH, MILITARY, ALABAMA
Source: George Magazine
Published: 10/15/00 Author: Peter Keating and Karthik Thyagarajan
Posted on 10/15/2000 12:27:30 PDT by AHerald
















The Real Military Record of George W. Bush: Not Heroic, but Not AWOL, Either
By Peter Keating and Karthik Thyagarajan

For more than a year, controversy about George W. Bush's Air National Guard record has bubbled through the press. Interest in the topic has spiked in recent days, as at least two websites have launched stories essentially calling Bush AWOL in 1972 and 1973. For example, in "Finally, the Truth about Bush's Military Record" on TomPaine.com, Marty Heldt writes, "Bush's long absence from the records comes to an end one week after he failed to comply with an order to attend 'Annual Active Duty Training' starting at the end of May 1973... Nothing indicates in the records that he ever made up the time he missed." And in Bush's Military Record Reveals Grounding and Absence for Two Full Years" on Democrats.com, Robert A. Rogers states: "Bush never actually reported in person for the last two years of his service - in direct violation of two separate written orders."

Neither is correct.

It's time to set the record straight. The following analysis, which relies on National Guard documents, extensive interviews with military officials and previously unpublished evidence of Bush's whereabouts in the summer and fall of 1972, is the first full chronology of Bush's military record. Its basic conclusions: Bush may have received favorable treatment to get into the Guard, served irregularly after the spring of 1972 and got an expedited discharge, but he did accumulate the days of service required of him for his ultimate honorable discharge.

At the Republican convention in Philadelphia, George W. Bush declared: "Our military is low on parts, pay and morale. If called on by the commander-in-chief today, two entire divisions of the Army would have to report, 'Not ready for duty, sir.'" Bush says he is the candidate who can "rebuild our military and prepare our armed forces for the future." On what direct military experience does he make such claims?

George W. Bush applied to join the Texas Air National Guard on May 27, 1968, less than two weeks before he graduated from Yale University. The country was at war in Vietnam, and at that time, just months after the bloody Tet Offensive, an estimated 100,000 Americans were on waiting lists to join Guard units across the country. Bush was sworn in on the day he applied.

Ben Barnes, former speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, stated in September 1999 that in late 1967 or early 1968, he asked a senior official in the Texas Air National Guard to help Bush get into the Guard as a pilot. Barnes said he did so at the behest of Sidney Adger, a Houston businessman and friend of former President George H. W. Bush, then a Texas congressman. Despite Barnes's admission, former President Bush has denied pulling strings for his son, and retired Colonel Walter Staudt, George W. Bush's first commander, insists: "There was no special treatment."

The younger Bush fulfilled two years of active duty and completed pilot training in June 1970. During that time and in the two years that followed, Bush flew the F-102, an interceptor jet equipped with heat-seeking missiles that could shoot down enemy planes. His commanding officers and peers regarded Bush as a competent pilot and enthusiastic Guard member. In March 1970, the Texas Air National Guard issued a press release trumpeting his performance: "Lt. Bush recently became the first Houston pilot to be trained by the 147th [Fighter Group] and to solo in the F-102... Lt. Bush said his father was just as excited and enthusiastic about his solo flight as he was." In Bush's evaluation for the period May 1, 1971 through April 30, 1972, then-Colonel Bobby Hodges, his commanding officer, stated, "I have personally observed his participation, and without exception, his performance has been noteworthy." In the spring of 1972, however, National Guard records show a sudden dropoff in Bush's military activity. Though trained as a pilot at considerable government expense, Bush stopped flying in April 1972 and never flew for the Guard again.

Around that time, Bush decided to go to work for Winton "Red" Blount, a Republican running for the U.S. Senate, in Alabama. Documents from Ellington Air Force Base in Houston state that Bush "cleared this base on 15 May." Shortly afterward, he applied for assignment to the 9921st Air Reserve Squadron in Montgomery, Ala., a unit that required minimal duty and offered no pay. Although that unit's commander was willing to welcome him, on May 31 higher-ups at the Air Reserve Personnel Center in Denver rejected Bush's request to serve at the 9921st, because it did not offer duty equivalent to his service in Texas. "[A]n obligated Reservist [in this case, Bush] can be assigned to a specific Ready Reserve position only," noted the disapproval memo, a copy of which was sent to Bush. "Therefore, he is ineligible for assignment to an Air Reserve Squadron."

Despite the military's decision, Bush moved to Alabama. Records obtained by Georegemag.com show that the Blount Senate campaign paid Bush about $900 a month from mid-May through mid-November to do advance work and organize events. Neither Bush's annual evaluation nor the Air National Guard's overall chronological listing of his service contain any evidence that he performed Guard duties during that summer.

On or around his 27th birthday, July 6, 1972, Bush did not take his required annual medical exam at his Texas unit. As a consequence, he was suspended from flying military jets. Bush spokesperson Dan Bartlett told Georgemag.com: "You take that exam because you are flying, and he was not flying. The paperwork uses the phrase 'suspended from flying,' but he had no intention of flying at that time."

Some media reports have speculated that Bush took and failed his physical, or that he was grounded as a result of substance abuse. Bush's vagueness on the subject of his past drug use has only abetted such rumors. Bush's commanding officer in Texas, however, denies the charges. "His flying status was suspended because he didn't take the exam,not because he couldn't pass," says Hodges. Asked whether Bush was ever disciplined for using alcohol or illicit drugs, Hodges replied: "No."

On September 5, Bush wrote to then-Colonel Jerry Killian at his original unit in Texas, requesting permission to serve with the 187th Tactical Reconnaisance Group, another Alabama-based unit. "This duty would be for the months of September, October, and November," wrote Bush.

This time his request was approved: 10 days later, the Alabama Guard ordered Bush to report to then-Lieutenant Colonel William Turnipseed at Dannelly Air Force Base in Montgomery on October 7th and 8th. The memo noted that "Lieutenant Bush will not be able to satisfy his flight requirements with our group," since the 187th did not fly F-102s.

The question of whether Bush ever actually served in Alabama has become an issue in the 2000 campaign-the Air Force Times recently reported that "the GOP is trying to locate people who served with Bush in late 1972 ... to see if they can confirm that Bush briefly served with the Alabama Air National Guard." Bush's records contain no evidence that he reported to Dannelly in October. And in telephone interviews with Georgemag.com, neither Turnipseed, Bush's commanding officer, nor Kenneth Lott, then chief personnel officer of the 187th, remembered Bush serving with their unit. "I don't think he showed up," Turnipseed said.

Bush maintains he did serve in Alabama. "Governor Bush specifically remembers pulling duty in Montgomery and respectfully disagrees with the Colonel," says Bartlett. "There's no question it wasn't memorable, because he wasn't flying." In July, the Decatur Daily reported that two former Blount campaign workers recall Bush serving in the Alabama Air National Guard in the fall of 1972. "I remember he actually came back to Alabama for about a week to 10 days several weeks after the campaign was over to complete his Guard duty in the state," stated Emily Martin, a former Alabama resident who said she dated Bush during the time he spent in that state.

After the 1972 election, which Blount lost, Bush moved back to Houston and subsequently began working at P.U.L.L., a community service center for disadvantaged youths. This period of time has also become a matter of controversy, because even though Bush's original unit had been placed on alert duty in October 1972, his superiors in Texas lost track of his whereabouts. On May 2, 1973, Bush's squadron leader in the 147th, Lieutenant Colonel William Harris, Jr. wrote: "Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit" for the past year. Harris incorrectly assumed that Bush had been reporting for duty in Alabama all along. He wrote that Bush "has been performing equivalent training in a non-flying status with the 187 Tac Recon Gp, Dannelly ANG Base, Alabama." Base commander Hodges says of Bush's return to Texas: "All I remember is someone saying he came back and made up his days."

Two documents obtained by Georgemag.com indicate that Bush did make up the time he missed during the summer and autumn of 1972. One is an April 23, 1973 order for Bush to report to annual active duty training the following month; the other is an Air National Guard statement of days served by Bush that is torn and undated but contains entries that correspond to the first. Taken together, they appear to establish that Bush reported for duty on nine occasions between November 29, 1972-when he could have been in Alabama-and May 24, 1973. Bush still wasn't flying, but over this span, he did earn nine points of National Guard service from days of active duty and 32 from inactive duty. When added to the 15 so-called "gratuitous" points that every member of the Guard got per year, Bush accumulated 56 points, more than the 50 that he needed by the end of May 1973 to maintain his standing as a Guardsman.

On May 1, Bush was ordered to report for further active duty training, and documents show that he proceeded to cram in another 10 sessions over the next two months. Ultimately, he racked up 19 active duty points of service and 16 inactive duty points by July 30-which, added to his 15 gratuitous points, achieved the requisite total of 50 for the year ending in May 1974.

On October 1, 1973, First Lieutenant George W. Bush received an early honorable discharge so that he could attend Harvard Business School. He was credited with five years, four months and five days of service toward his six-year service obligation.

TALK ABOUT this story in the CAMPAIGN 2000 FORUM.



April: Bush's last reported flying mission.

May 15: Bush clears Ellington AFB.

May 24: Bush applies to 9921st Reserve Squadron, AL.
View documentation

May 27: 9921st approves application, welcomes Bush.
View documentation

May 31: Air Reserve Personnel Center denies application.
View documentation

August 1: Bush flight suspension due to "failure to accomplish medical exam."
View documentation

September 5: Bush applies for 3-month duty at 187th Tac Recon, AL.
View documentation

September 15: 187th approves Bush's application.
View documentation

November-May (1973):
Record of Bush service: 56 points.
View documentation

April 23: Texas ANG orders Bush to attend annual active duty training.
View documentation

April 30: Ellington AFB unable to evaluate Bush.
View documentation

May-July: Record of Bush service: 50 points.
View documentation

October 1: Bush granted early honorable discharge.

[CholeraJoe]

LOL! As one who grew up in Alabama, the hills in the Northeast part of the state are full of Turnipseeds and Smothermans.

[hole_n_one]

Andy, do you have a direct link to that article?

[xsmommy]

i think i told you i knew a Turnipseed from Montgomery, that was her maiden name.

[demlosers]

Hannity is discussing this now!

[Petronski]

If necessary, one of the FReepers on here who is a lawyer can say better what form it should take.

An affidavit (deponent, being duly sworn, hereby deposes and says...) can be made of his testimony, then presented for his review. If he attests to its accuracy, he signs it in the presence of a notary public. Multiple copies of the same instrument are advised, and should be kept in different places.

A published interview preserves the nature of the testimony, but an affidavit is actually sworn testimony and admissible after his death to establish the facts therein.

[kcvl]

Tom Turnipseed, former President of the SC Trial Lawyers Association, is a plaintiff's and civil rights attorney in Columbia, SC. He was co-counsel for the Macedonia Baptist Church, an African American congregation in Clarendon County, SC which won a $37,000,000.00 (Thirty Seven Million Dollar) verdict in 1998 against the Ku Klux Klan for burning their church. A former SC State Senator, he is active in state politics and has been the democratic nominee for state Attorney General and Congress. He now serves on the state Executive Committee of the Democratic Party. Tom is President of the Center for Democratic Renewal (formerly the Anti-Klan Network) a nationally recognized civil rights organization based in Atlanta. In 1998, he received the Holmes-Weatherly Award, the Unitarian-Universalist Association's highest honor for the pursuit of social justice. For many years, Tom has spoken and written on political and human rights; he has hosted radio and television shows in Columbia, SC and recently appeared on CBS-TVs "Life Remembers" on Dec. 30th, 1998 and " Forgotten Fires" on PBS-TV on April 29th,, 1999. His work has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlanta Constitution, The Charlotte Observer and other papers.

[NYCVirago]

In Hon's defense, we were discussing on a thread last night whether William Turnipseed was related to left-wing wacko Tom Turnipseed. Both of us noticed the same thing, as Turnipseed is an unusual surname, and Tom Turnipseed was born in Alabama, where William Turnipseed was in the Guard. Anyhow, I suggested: "How can we find this out (if the two are related)? Freepers, any ideas?", and Hon took the ball and ran with it in starting a new thread asking for freeper input on it, and then making these phone calls.

[Petronski]

An affidavit with two witness also swearing to the deponent's attest to the contents of the affidavit is even better, especially if the affidavit records the identity/address/etc of the witnesses for letter authentication.

[Hon]

Sorry. That should have read:

"Back in 1972 his Alabama National Guard unit received a letter from Bush (who was in the Texas Nation Guard) asking if while he was in Alabama, he could do some equivalancy training with the Alabama unit."

[Quix]

THANKS.

Perhaps we could print this on sand paper and put it in some dark media . . .


wellllll, anyway.

[ConservativeMan55]

Couric is a sick individual.