Former Dannelly worker: Bush not AWOL [another eyewitness steps forward]

THE DECATUR DAILY ^ | 2.16.04 | Eric Fleischauer

[ambrose]

Former Dannelly worker: Bush not AWOL

By Eric Fleischauer

DAILY Staff Writer

eric@decaturdaily.com · 340-2435

Retired Master Sgt. James Copeland does not care so much whether people think President Bush went absent without leave in 1972, but one thing he hears bothers him plenty.

"Maybe the Bush family was well known in Texas, but we didn't know who he was here. He was just another guy in a flight jacket," Copeland said Sunday.

Copeland, who lives in Hartselle, retired from the Air Force on Jan. 31, 1980. He was the disbursement accounting supervisor, a full-time position, for Dannelly Air National Guard Base in Montgomery from Oct. 28, 1971, to Oct. 27, 1975. His office was less than 100 yards from the hangar where Bush performed drills.

Rumors say Bush went AWOL while assisting Winton "Red" Blount in an unsuccessful campaign for U.S. Senate focus on 1972 and 1973.

Copeland, 65, remembers meeting Bush on two occasions. He does not remember the precise dates. On one occasion, Copeland said, Bush and Lt. Col. John "Bill" Calhoun came to Copeland's office with a question about Bush's pay. Copeland is not sure, but he believes the question had to do with where to mail Bush's checks.

Bush was never a member of the Alabama National Guard, he just did his drills here. For that reason, Copeland thinks he referred the pay question to the paymaster for the Texas National Guard.

The other time Copeland remembers meeting Bush was at the base canteen. Bush was there drinking coffee or a soft drink, Copeland said.

Copeland stressed that Calhoun's account of Bush's service in Montgomery would be accurate because Calhoun was in a position to work with Bush during every drill. Calhoun told The Associated Press last week that he saw Bush every drill time, which was one weekend each month.

Not only was Calhoun in a position to know of Bush's service, Copeland said, but Calhoun "was an ethical and honest officer."

No easy treatment

The suggestion that he or anyone else gave Bush a break because of the family legacy bothers Copeland.

"You hear people saying that everybody (at Dannelly) knew the Bushes. Well, that's just a lie," Copeland said. "He was just another pilot. No one paid any more attention to him than to anyone else. There was no hoopla."

Copeland said Bush trained on an F-106 fighter plane in Texas, so he was not qualified to fly the planes at Dannelly. Dannelly had F-84 Thunderjets and, later, F-4 Phantoms.

The issue of whether Bush skipped his Air National Guard duties is not a new one.

Some Democrats have long questioned whether Bush continued his drills while absent from Texas for Blount's campaign.

Bush Press Secretary Scott McClellan said Friday that the White House is making no effort to locate people who could document Bush's service.

Joe Holcombe, 71, of Joppa worked with Bush on the Blount campaign. He told THE DAILY last week that he remembers Bush missing at least one campaign meeting because of his National Guard drills.

While Copeland said he thinks claims that Bush was AWOL are baseless, he said one thing puzzles him.

"All Bush would have to do to get proof of his Alabama service is pick up the phone and contact military records," he said. "It seems a little odd that he hasn't done that."

Copeland also is puzzled by dental records that Bush produced as evidence of his duties at Dannelly.

"We had no dentist at Dannelly Field," Copeland said. "The only dentists were at Maxwell (Air Force Base)."

[Servant of the 9]

At that time, GHWB was just a former Representative from Houston, who had lost a race for the Senate and no one but Houston Republicans (there weren't many then) knew who any of them were.

So9

[Hon]

That makes FOUR eyewitnesses.

(As I've mentioned, there are exactly ZERO eyewitnesses to the event for which Kerry got a Silver Star.)

[ambrose]

Four?

I am aware of LeFevers, Calhoun, and now Copeland. Who is the 4th?

[demlosers]

Hey McAuliffe! Are you going to retract your AWOL accusation?

[SolidSupplySide]

John Anderson, a doctor who recalls examining Lt. Bush.

[hoosiermama]

Don't hold your breath!

[RobRoy]

The last two quoted questions in the article do need to be addressed. Or have they already been?

[EllaMinnow]

lookee here:

HMMMMM [Rich Lowry]
John Kerry last night disavowed any interest in attacking President Bush over his National Guard record: “I have suggested to some people who are my advocates who've gone that line of attack, it's not one that I plan to do, it's not one I have. I don't plan to do that and I've asked them not to,” he said. “But the president has to speak for his own military record. And those of you in the news media, obviously, have asked questions about it, and that's where I'll let it sit.”

But according to the Washington Post yesterday, Kerry aides were furious at Terry McAuliffe for raising the Guard issue – because he was doing it too soon for their purposes and in what they thought was a clumsy way:

"When Democratic National Committee Chairman Terence R. McAuliffe went on television two weeks ago to accuse President Bush as a young man of being 'AWOL' in his National Guard duty, party officials quickly heard complaints from the staff of presidential candidate Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.).

Kerry aides were not upset about McAuliffe's negative tone, Democratic sources said. Instead, they were worried that the party chairman had raised the charge too early -- preventing Kerry from making more effective use of a potent issue later this year if he is the Democratic nominee…

Impugning Bush's patriotism with loaded terms such as 'AWOL' may muddy the real issue, Lockhart said. 'I didn't agree with the chairman of my party on that,' he said.

A Kerry aide said campaign advisers did not agree either, and called the DNC after McAuliffe's appearance on ABC's 'This Week.' But several Democratic sources said those calls were not about the substance of the charge, but about tactical factors. These officials said Kerry's team thought it better to have a veteran make any allegations about Bush's service, and they preferred to keep in reserve the contrast between Kerry's Vietnam combat duty and Bush's alleged absenteeism until Kerry had the Democratic nomination assured.

http://www.nationalreview.com/thecorner/corner.asp

[Polybius]

Years ago, my wife once performed one of her monthly Navy Reserve drills in Miami instead of in San Diego because we were visiting my realtives there at the time. I am sure that nobody from the C.O. of the Miami unit to the lowest E-1 would remember her today.

If my wife ever runs for President as a Republican, the news media will label her as having been AWOL or being a deserter.

If my wife ever runs for President as a Democrat, the news media will gush over her and hail her as a military heroine.

[YaYa123]

I just finished watching as much as I could stand of HARDBALL. Mathews is doing his whole show on VietNam. Well, that's what he said...actually he's doing a show on the cowardice of George Bush for going in the National Guard to avoid Viet Nam.

Chris Mathews is one sick dude!

[cyncooper]

Thanks to Rich Lowry who has been extremely strong of late. For several months now.

The media makes me sick with their "Kerry's stayed above the fray" attitude regarding the National Guard issue. Everything Kerry has said has kept it alive, just as when Clark declined to denounce Moore's use of the term "deserter". Both Clark and Kerry are former military men who well know the meaning of the terms "AWOL" and "deserter", yet they dare to allow the term to be used against the President of the United States without a murmur of protest.

I despise Kerry and his cowardly ways. I have never heard him say one gracious thing about President Bush.

[alnick]

So we're up to six eye witnesses to GWB serving in Alabama:

Calhoun
the girlfriend
LaFever
the doctor
Holcombe
Copeland

[KQQL]

MEDIA to BUSH...NOT GOOD ENOUGH...We want more.......Proof.

[jwalsh07]

Ddi Mathews stand up and brand himself a yellow coward for never having worn a uniform?

[cyncooper]

And just now Chris Matthews asks Doug Brinkley to compare the Kerry/Bush military records and Matthews pretends George Bush's Guard experience is exemplified by his Alabama stint.

Chris refuses to acknowledge the skill and yes, bravery, that George W. Bush displayed flying a fighter jet. Instead Matthews acts like "eating a sandwich" and reading magazines was the whole of Bush's Guard career.

[cyncooper]

Chris would say "that's different" as he's not sending troops off to war.

That's what he and the other media are crafting the argument around.

[Hon]

Kerry disappeared behind the hootch and came back with the rocket launcher over his head, saying he had dispatched the VC.

You can look it up.

[jwalsh07]

I know but I'm not buying the garbage he's selling. Of course he wasn't selling that garbage in '92 and '96 becuase his intellectual honesty list is about as long as his DD214.