My brother, who has been in the National Guard for more than 20 years, told me tonight on the phone that Bush's records would not have been retained by the TANG after he was discharged (early 1970's). The records would have been sent to the DOD records storage facility in Kansas City where they would have been transposed to microfiche and stored. This makes Burkett's story about the Bush file being laundered in the 1990's false.
I wish someone with hands-on knowledge about the records handling would opine on this subject.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought the long term archive of DOD records was in Colorado. But this doesn't take away from the main point... removing old records from Texas in the 90s would be pointless without also hitting the archives. Somewhat harder to do, that.
I don't know about the TANG, but my records (at least the important stuff) were kept in microfiche form WHILE I was on active duty. Only the local command had paper copies. I know this because part of the process for making Chief Petty Officer was to request a copy and REVIEW them before the selection board did and correct any errors.