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.

[tirednvirginia]

Not doubting what the original poster has said but one would think there is at least one reporter out there somewhere who might have tried to get up with this Turnipsed guy in the last couple of weeks other than Hon. I haven't heard of any though.

[Cai Della]

?

Oh, Hon, where are you? I was looking everywhere, Hon.

Is that all there is, Hon?

?

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

Good work.

[Libertina]

No doubt the mainstream media will interview everybody BUT Mr. Turnipseed (???) in a valient effort to get at the truth... /s

[Libertina]

Thank you for this very clear report. It explains a LOT.

[potlatch]

Glad to see this article. Well worth bookmarking!

[Ben Hecks]

"I would really like some more info on whether it was active or inactive reserves and why he left. I am also surprised that the Navy put up with his anti-war activities while still being a member of the reserves."

That's a good question. At that time, I think Kerry would have had a total obligation of 6 or 8 years combined active duty/active reserve and inactive reserve. If he served on active duty from 66 - 70, he would have been obligated to another 2 or 4 years in the reserves. I can't understand his service not being served in consecutive years. If Kerry was released from active duty in 70, I would have thought that he would have been in the reserves until 72 or 74. Photos show him in the rag-tag unauthorized uniform in 1971 at a time when I maintain he would have been subject to Navy uniform regulations.

[ambrose]

so what do you make of this?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/02/08/wvet08.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/02/08/ixnewstop.html

[ambrose]

Wonder if Teddy Kennedy pulled strings to get Kerry those medals?

[texasflower]

If Ma Richards couldn't find any dirt, there ain't any dirt to be found.

That's a true statement if I ever heard one!!!!

[BOBTHENAILER]

Another Freeper scoop. Great job.

[lowbridge]

bump

[Gaelic]

Click on this site. http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnkerry.com/

[billhilly]

That is a perfectly plausable account, however, your post cites yourself as the source, without identifying yourself and you do not have a profile page. Am I missing something?

[Marie Antoinette]

Excellent work!

Bump to find later.

[537 Votes]

Lieutenant Bush had a requirement to show up for drills somewhere. There is no record of his having done so, either in Alabama or Texas, for a one year period. Turnipseed's statement is not damning, true, but it is consistent with the Democrat-sponsored allegation that Bush stayed with the Guard long enough to get through flight school, and then avoided drills for a year, and then got an early discharge. The problem has always been that there is no paperwork and no testimony to support the President's contention that he showed up during the period in question, and met his military obligations. Since that period was also at the height of the Vietnam War, in which Air Guardsmen were flying in combat, this leaves open the question of whether Bush was going through the motions of military career at the time while in truth shirking his contractual obligation to the Guard because he wanted to avoid combat duty.

There's a simple way to dispell criticism. Come up with eyewitness reports that he served in Alabama. Come up with paperwork stating that he did so.

[Hon]

Just an update. I just got called by Brig. General Turnipseed. I had sent him an email telling him what I had been up to and also directing him to this thread.

He came here and read the thread and said I did good. (Which is a relief.) I am trying to induce him to sign up and post. Hopefully he will.

[Hon]

Gen. Turnipseed mentioned a couple of new points of information to me in this last telephone call.

One, was that it was 60 Minutes who first contacted him (during the primaries in 2000) about Bush's Guard service. He said a woman called him, saying that she was in Texas looking at Bush's record and looking at Lt. Col. Lott's letter to Bush.

Gen. Turnipseed says that he said the same thing to her that he later said to the reporter for the Boston Globe. That he couldn't remember whether Bush had shown up or not. I'm not sure whether he said this to her, but he said he felt at the time that it was a non-story. He said that 60 Minutes must have felt the same way since they didn't do a story on it.

Gen. Turnipseed said that the Boston Globe may have gotten the story from 60 Minutes. But in any case they didn't contact him until later, after the primaries were over and it was clear that Bush would get the GOP nomination.

[Hon]

Also, Gen. Turnipseed told me that when the Boston Globe reporter (Walter Robinson) talked to him, he assured him that he was a "fair reporter." Gen. Turnipseed said that he was "suckered" in.

Again, Gen. Turnipseed thought at the time that there wasn't any story there. He didn't expect the Boston Globe reporter to make it into such a big deal.

Gen. Turnipseed repeated to me what he had told me the first time we spoke, that the media people just don't understand how the guard works. That Lott's letter, for instance, was not an order, it was not a directive. It was just to inform Bush when the drills were scheduled.

But the most important thing to remember in all of this is that Gen. Turnipseed was just talking about all of this casually. He casually mentioned that he couldn't remember whether Bush had shown up or not. He told them that he might not have even been on the base at the time.

But the Boston Globe reporter and the rest of the media have cited Gen. Turnipseed in such a way as to make it seem that he was declaring that Bush didn't for a fact show up. And that Bush had somehow disobeyed an order to show up.

Gen. Turnipseed says he didn't say any such thing. And I believe him.

[WOSG]

They will re-remember the truth after the November elections are over ... Must remember their priorities!!