Posted on 09/09/2004 7:33:57 AM PDT by TastyManatees
New Questions On Bush Guard Duty
CBS) The military records of the two men running for president have become part of the political arsenal in this campaign a tool for building up, or blowing up, each candidates credibility as America's next commander-in-chief.
While Sen. Kerry has been targeted for what he did in Vietnam, President Bush has been criticized for avoiding Vietnam by landing a spot in the Texas Air National Guard - and then failing to meet some of his obligations.
Did then-Lt. Bush fulfill all of his military obligations? And just how did he land that spot in the National Guard in the first place? Correspondent Dan Rather has new information on the presidents military service and the first-ever interview with the man who says he pulled strings to get young George W. Bush into the Texas Air National Guard.
...
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
No need for the swipe.
"The rank abbreviations used in the memos are wrong - Or maybe my mind is wrong about when the military changed the rank abbreviations. But best I can remember they are as follows: 2LT; 1LT; CPT; MAJ; LTC; COL; Etc. I do not think any military person would use the abbreviations as indicated in the memos. If this person was the commander he would have used LTC, Commanding for his signature block."
You're Army, right? The abbreviations you use are a giveaway.
In USAF from the 1970s, as I used them, it was 2Lt, 1Lt, Capt, Maj, LtCol or LTCol, Col or COL, etc. NO Lt Colonel would have typed "1st Lt" Bush!!!
Lt Col Killian would have signed his name (even in private memos he was writing for himself) as shown in the one authentic document used for comparison.
J. Killian, LtCol, USAF (or TexANG?)
Commander
However, your point is valid. The memos did not use the typical USAF abbreviations for rank, nor did the memo writer format the signature block as a commander would do.
And he would not have typed 111 F.I.S. - no one used periods.
Both IBM Selectric typewriters (1961) and the earlier IBM Executive (1950s) could use proportionately spaced fonts.
Thanks for your input.
I have a call in to an old friend who teaches printing and collects old typewriters, and my mom, who used to be a typesetter.
Someone out in Blogland has an IBM Executive Typewriter and will set us straight about superscripted "th" and the curly apostrophes eventually.
Interesting take, but I just retyped the paragraph with Open Office in standard 12 point with margins on the default setting and guess what? Every single line break matched perfectly, just like the gentleman who re-typed the letter in Microsoft Word. All I'd have had to do would have been to print it out and run it through the copier 10 times or so to make an exact duplicate of this.
My question...how did this person find Times Roman font and know exactly how both Open Office and Microsoft Word would format each line almost 20 years before they were invented?
Fascinating.
"Harris gave me a message today from Grip (a headquarters unit) regarding Bush's OETR (officer efficiency training report) and Stuart is pushing to sugar coat it. Bush wasn't here during rating period and I don't have any comments from 187th in Alabama. I will not rate"
Did anyone here from the USAF in the 70's ever hear of an OETR? I never heard them called anything except "OER's".
However, based on comments from credible folks here, who have personal experience, I am inclined to think that such a character was available. I don't take either the proportional spacing or the "superscript th" as conclusive evidence of forgery.
Hey, the Air Force got the USMC good after 9/11:
Marine General: "We've eviscerated the Taliban in Kandahar."
Air Force General on Meet the Depressed: "Gosh, I didn't know Marines knew how to spell 'eviscerated,' let alone use it in a sentence!"
BTW, as a former Marine, I thought that was funny.
BTW, I first heard "Air Farce" from an airman.
60 Minutes Spokesperson: Kelli Edwards 212-975-6795
However, please refer to this link:
http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/BushGuardaugust18.pdf
Since it is a PDF doc, enlarge the doc and look at the letter "y" in the word obviously (line1) and compare that "y" in the word today (line 5)
Putting aside the debate what kind of IBM typewriter it was, does this difference in font indicate that, at a minumum, this doc was altered?
By Whom?
Why?
Altered by Killian?
I brought this over here in case you guys missed it regarding redacted government documents and CBS may be vouching for faxed copies instead of originals.
The Clintonites do not want Kerry to win, imo. But I am sure they know the scrutiny those letters would receive and are probably sitting around laughing right now.
This seems like solid evidence of a forgery, do you have a link to show the military documents with date and addresses? thanks good work...
Here's some technical info pdf and this
Do I think it is possible that the National Guard had this "professional typewriter" in '72? It had been available for at least 3 years, and if you were accurate, it was easy to use.
No need to get testy over this. Check out this link:
http://www.etypewriters.com/a-thumb.htm
Memo Subject: "CYA" ??
This is CRAP.
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