Daddy Bush got him out of war duty; he ended up in the Alabama National Guard where he couldn’t be troubled to attend monthly meetings. Mission Accomplished.
Yes, I remember something about GWB helping with a deferral of some kind. And yes, it was Alabama NG. My mistake.
However, you are channeling Dan Rather and his fraudulent memo that was busted right here on FR. The truth was that the aircraft W flew was obsolete and being de-commissioned. W formally asked if he could skip his last meetings which was approved by his commanding officer.
W was at the end of his officer commission, and the C.O. figured it wouldn't be cost effective to train him on another aircraft and just let W go. There were documents to substantiate that. Plus, IIRC, W asked for duty in Viet Nam while still flying.
There were three salient differences between John Kerry and “W” Bush:
- John Kerry joined a different branch, and not the reserves. “W” Bush - altho he joined the reserves rather than active military - was de facto active for a year to train up as a fighter pilot.
- John Kerry wanted to stay out of harm’s way, and applied for duty accordingly - but that duty turned out to take him into harm’s way. Bush’s specialty was one which would have taken him into harm’s way, except for the particular aircraft he qualified on not being wanted in Vietnam. Bush volunteered for combat duty but, on that account, wasn’t accepted.
- John Kerry was a year older, and therefore experienced the effect of Vietnam on the military differently due to changes in US policy. Bush was in the reserves, and qualified to fly/fight, at a time when the Air Force was withdrawing from Vietnam, and veteran combat pilots were transitioning to the National Guard.
It accordingly became hard to get flight time in competition with those veterans, and thus hard to stay qualified. It hadn’t been hard to get into the TANG; that didn’t require pull from GHWB - but it became hard to stay in as a qualified pilot because of the competition from the returning vets. For that reason “W” effectively phased himself out of the TANG which at that time was as convenient for the TANG as it was for himself.
Daddy got him out of “war duty” with a posting in the Alabama National Guard?
Yeah whatever, keep believing that BS that discredited Dan Rather tried to peddle.
He was with the 147th Fighter Interceptor Group based at Ellington AFB in Houston.
