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Former Guardsman: Bush served with me in AlabamaBy the Associated Press A retired Alabama Air National Guard officer said Friday that he remembers George Bush showing up for duty in Alabama in 1972, reading safety magazines and flight manuals in an office as he performed his weekend obligations. "I saw him each drill period," retired Lt. Col. John "Bill" Calhoun said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press from Daytona Beach, Fla., where he is preparing to watch this weekend's big NASCAR race. "He was very aggressive about doing his duty there. He never complained about it. ......

Montgomery Advertiser, front page, 13 Feb 04 Pair Say President in Area Members of Bush's unit have yet to say they remember the president serving duty ---- No member of President Bush's Air National Guard Unit has come forward with recollections of him at the Montgomery base, but a Selma Republican leader who campaigned with Bush says she saw him in uniform on his way to drills in 1972. Jean Sullivan volunteered with Bush on the unsuccessful Senate campaign of Winton Blount in fall 1972, and she says even then there were rumors and rumblings that Bush wasn't showing up...

Bush met military obligation, aide says 02/11/04MARY ORNDORFF and BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE News staff writers A White House spokesman said Tuesday that President Bush worked enough days as a member of the Texas Air National Guard in 1972 and 1973 to fulfill his annual training requirements, but new payroll records he released also show a five-month gap while Bush was assigned to a small reserve unit in Montgomery. Bush did not receive military pay from May to September of 1972, according to the documents, and the former commander of the 9921st Air Reserve Squadron said Tuesday that Bush didn't show...

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...

Memories place Bush in Alabama if records don't By DAVE HIRSCHMAN in Montgomery , MONI BASU in Atlanta The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 02/13/04 The search for proof that young Lt. George W. Bush worked weekends at an Air Force base in Montgomery, 32 years ago has taken on a strange, forensic quality.  Family photo (ENLARGE) Lt. Col. John "Bill" Calhoun said he saw the future president each drill period when both men were serving in the National Guard in Montgomery.  EMAIL THISPRINT THISMOST POPULAR Dusty dental records and copies of old pay stubs provided by the White House are...

<p>A retired Air National Guard physician recalls giving President Bush a physical in 1972, his son said Saturday, adding another memory to the small but growing pool of recollections of Bush's military service in Montgomery.</p> <p>The memories of Bush's service contradict a dearth of paperwork surrounding his time assigned to the Alabama Air National Guard, but a retired Air National Guard personnel officer said the lack of records could very well be the result of shoddy record-keeping, as opposed to deliquence on Bush's part.</p>

Not only was George W. Bush fulfilling his National Guard duties in 1972, he was already showing the conservative political ideology that is now the bane of many Democrats, according to a Joppa man. Joe Holcombe, 71, was the office manager for Winton "Red" Blount in his unsuccessful race for the U.S. Senate in 1972. Bush was the county coordinator for Blount's campaign, Holcombe said. The Blount family and the Bush family were good friends, Holcombe said. Blount lost to Morgan County native and U.S. Sen. John Sparkman. Bush joined Blount's campaign "a little before or a little after the...