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the may 4 memo was an order to show up for a physical by may 14. the may 19 memo showed that bush and his CO were still discussing the physical and that bush had told his CO that he would get the physical in alabama if he intended to keep his flight status

while his CO was concerned about the investment they had made, it is obvious from the second memo (and the fact that the CO never made any official complaint about bush's decision) that the CO was in fundamental agreement with Bush's decision.

Otherwise, were are the court marshall records for bush disobeying a direct order?

Would those of you who have posted opinions concerning these documents on other threads, please post them here, too, so we can keep them all together?

Just seeing this thread this morning. I'll cut and paste my side by side of the CBS article representation of memo #2 and the actual memo itself:

CBS:

Killian called Lt. Bush "an exceptionally fine young officer and pilot" who "performed in an outstanding manner." That is part of the public record.

But 60 Minutes has obtained a number of documents we are told were taken from Col. Killian's personal file. Among them, a never-before-seen memorandum from May 1972, where Killian writes that Lt. Bush called him to talk about "how he can get out of coming to drill from now through November."

Lt. Bush tells his commander "he is working on a campaign in Alabama…. and may not have time to take his physical." Killian adds that he thinks Lt. Bush has gone over his head, and is "talking to someone upstairs."

Col. Killian died in 1984. 60 Minutes consulted a handwriting analyst and document expert who believes the material is authentic.

~snip~

Now, the actual memo:

May 19, 1972

Memo to File

Subject: Discussion with Bush; 1st Lt. Bush

1. Phone call from Bush. Discussed options of how Bush can get out of coming to drill from now through November. I told him he could do ET for three months or transfer. Says he wants to transfer to Alabama to any unit he can get in to. Says that he is working on another campaign for his dad.

2. Physical. We talked about him getting his flight physical situation fixed before his date. Says that he will do that in Alabama if he stays in a flight status. He has this campaign to do and other things that will follow and may not have the time. I advised him of our investment in him and his commitment. He's been working with staff to come up with options and identified a unit that may accept him. I told him I had to have written acceptance before he would be transferred, but I think he's talking to someone upstairs.

END OF MEMO

Typewriter - Pica or Elite were the two settings.
Pica was 12 characters per inch (plus space bar and all punctuation), and Pica was 10 (or vice versa, this was along time ago). One had to manually scroll the roll one half turn to get the (th).

Where are we with characters per inches on these documents?

Also, the difference between IBM typewriters (key ball type of striking) and Selectric or Corona (individual key strike) is interesting. The typing would have been light in a Xerox copy, and copied many times, I'm not certain would have shown up as legible (documents I've received through genealogy research prove this). The IBM typewriter, however, would have been used to strike through the many copies of the forms and left deep and dark marks that uphold well through various copies.

That typewriter would have been with the guy or department that typed the form. Would Killiam use the typewriter that belonged to the form typing guy or use his own typewriter if he wrote this memo? He would have one because he would have correspondence. Would have have the expensive ball-key one? I defer my last question to Military folks who know organization and protocol. I don't know how that works.

I printed out all the Bush Guard Documents (on a laser printer) and found that the three documents that CBS 60 Minutes presented, reveal something interesting, When you print the PDF document "memorandum" medical exam. you can read the Blacked out text.
"5000 Longmont #8" But all the other documents that Bush turned over "that are offered on CBS Web Site" All Blacked out text is not readable.

I blacked out some text on a test doc with a black marker, then copied and faxed it and found that the copied doc's text was not readable same with the faxed one. So is Dan Rather lying when he said, these were faxed to him?

Remember that these docs were not sent to CBS from Col Killian's family, and the Government Always Blacks out Personal Info like address, phone ect..

I just wonder if anyone has any insite on this?