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« Digital Freedom UPDATE | Main | Digital Freedom UPDATE » May 7, 2003Guarding the TruthBlogger South Knox Bubba is fond of belittling President George W. Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard, even repeating the charge that Bush was often "AWOL" during his stint in the Guard. It's a favorite accusation of the anti-Bushies, one given new life a few years ago by this story in the Boston Globe, which alleges a one-year gap in Bush's service record. But later reporting proved Bush wasn't AWOL.... National Guard magazine said it best in its Jan. 2001 edition: Bush also was accused of skirting the draft by joining the Texas Air Guard in 1968. He became an F-102 fighter pilot before being discharged as a first lieutenant in 1973. [Former National Guard Bureau historian retired Col. Michael] Doubler says it is unfair to criticize those who joined the Guard during the Vietnam War. "The government allowed it and in many ways encouraged it," he said "There were a lot of things the government did to authorize people to serve in places other than the front lines."The New York Times also looked into the charge and found it lacked substance: Two Democratic senators today called on Gov. George W. Bush to release his full military record to resolve doubts raised by a newspaper about whether he reported for required drills when he was in the Air National Guard in 1972 and 1973. But a review of records by The New York Times indicated that some of those concerns may be unfounded. The Times examined the record in response to a previous Boston Globe story.Here's a link to the abstract of the NYT story. The text I provided came courtesy of AndrewSullivan.com Even the Boston Globe's story admits Bush served more than the minimum time, and was a fine pilot: Those who trained and flew with Bush, until he gave up flying in April 1972, said he was among the best pilots in the 111th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron. In the 22-month period between the end of his flight training and his move to Alabama, Bush logged numerous hours of duty, well above the minimum requirements for so-called ''weekend warriors.'' Incidentally, Bush flew with the 111th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, which was attached to the 147th Fighter Wing, based in Houston, Texas. While Bush's unit never got called to Vietnam, the 147th was. From 1968 through 1970, pilots from the 147th participated in operation "Palace Alert" and served in Southeast Asia during the height of the Vietnam War. The 147th came off runway alert on Jan. 1, 1970 to start a new mission of training all F-102 pilots in the United States for the Air National Guard. Bush enlisted as an Airman Basic in the 147th Fighter-Interceptor Group at Ellington Air Force Base, Houston, on May 28, 1968 - at a time when the 147th was actively participating in combat in Vietnam. However, one can not train overnight to be a pilot. Bush completed basic flight training and then, from December 1969 through June 27, 1970, he was training full-time at Ellington to be an F-102 pilot. Bush volunteered to serve in a unit at the very moment it was seeing combat in Vietnam, and only a restructuring of the unit's mission before he completed his flight training made it unlikely he would fly in combat. And he was never AWOL - he completed his required service and even served beyond the minimum. SKB owes the president an apology. A big Welcome! to those who came here from Instapundit, One Hand Clapping, Sgt. Stryker, the Daily Pundit and sundry other points of the blogosphere. After you read the post below, please also scroll up or go here to read a follow-up. And please don't miss these just-posted letters from two readers. Comments
"Documents reviewed by The Times showed that Mr. Bush served in at least 9 of the 17 months in question... " For those of us who served during Vietnam, that kind of a record would have landed you IN Vietnam. My guess is that the author of this site has no memory of the Vietnam War. And, he OBVIOUSLY has no experience serving in the Reserves or Guard during that time period. Bush has never once proven to me that he served his time. And, worse yet, he's never even tried. He cares so little about his military record that he has never tried to defend it. That leaves me with two possibilities. Either he is lying or the evidence shows he did not serve honorably and was a beneficiary of cronyism. Most likely President Bush did as I've seen many do... dropped names. Repeatedly. Posted by: Frank at January 28, 2004 12:16 AMI was too young to get involved in Viet Nam, but the Malone kid who lived across the street from me in Houston did go. He came back in a bag during his second tour of duty. Unlike Bush, Jr., the Malone kid didn't have the political connections to get special treatment. Aided by Texas Speaker of the House Ben Barnes, George Walker Bush skipped past others on the waiting list despite having scored in the 25 percentile on the pilot aptitude portion of Air Force officer's test. Malone didn't get to skip past better qualified people on the waiting list to get in the guard. Unlike Bush, Jr., the Malone kid didn't fail to take a drug test. He couldn't, because he was dead when that requirement was added to military physicals. But Bush Jr. did fail to take that test, and did lose his flying privileges. The Malone kid didn't get to skip out on guard duty to serve on a political campaign. And the Malone kid didn't get to quit early to go back to school. One of these two was a brave, honorable Texan. The other isn't brave, isn't honorable, and isn't even from Texas. ------- Boston Globe breaks the story in the summer of 2000 The Dallas Morning News and Washington Post pick up the story The Birminghan News picks up the story The link to the WaPo article doesn't work because it needs a target="_blank" as part of the link tag. But you can find a working link to that article at awolbush.com. And here's the first couple of paragraphs ... Records of Bush's Ala. Military Duty Can't Be Found Washington Post By Wayne Slater, Dallas Morning News But a spokesman expressed confidence Saturday that inquiries will turn up former Guard members who can corroborate Bush's having been there. --- They're still looking! [quote]The Malone kid didn't get to skip out on guard duty to serve on a political campaign. And the Malone kid didn't get to quit early to go back to school. [/quote] He didn't quit, but he chose to stay....He chose to stay a second tour. You're own words acknowledge this. It was his choice. [quote]Bush has never once proven to me that he served his time. And, worse yet, he's never even tried. He cares so little about his military record that he has never tried to defend it. That leaves me with two possibilities. Either he is lying or the evidence shows he did not serve honorably and was a beneficiary of cronyism. [/quote] Evidence? There is no evidence he didn't serve dishonorably. There is plenty of evidence he did his time and served honorably. What part of "Honorable Discharge" don't you get? Posted by: Tim Burton at February 4, 2004 10:22 PM[quote]The Malone kid didn't get to skip out on guard duty to serve on a political campaign. And the Malone kid didn't get to quit early to go back to school. [/quote] He didn't quit, but he chose to stay....He chose to stay a second tour. You're own words acknowledge this. It was his choice. [quote]Bush has never once proven to me that he served his time. And, worse yet, he's never even tried. He cares so little about his military record that he has never tried to defend it. That leaves me with two possibilities. Either he is lying or the evidence shows he did not serve honorably and was a beneficiary of cronyism. [/quote] Evidence? There is no evidence he didn't serve dishonorably. There is plenty of evidence he did his time and served honorably. What part of "Honorable Discharge" don't you get? Posted by: Tim Burton at February 4, 2004 10:23 PM[quote]The Malone kid didn't get to skip out on guard duty to serve on a political campaign. And the Malone kid didn't get to quit early to go back to school. [/quote] He didn't quit, but he chose to stay....He chose to stay a second tour. You're own words acknowledge this. It was his choice. [quote]Bush has never once proven to me that he served his time. And, worse yet, he's never even tried. He cares so little about his military record that he has never tried to defend it. That leaves me with two possibilities. Either he is lying or the evidence shows he did not serve honorably and was a beneficiary of cronyism. [/quote] Evidence? There is no evidence he didn't serve dishonorably. There is plenty of evidence he did his time and served honorably. What part of "Honorable Discharge" don't you get? Posted by: Tim Burton at February 4, 2004 10:26 PM[quote]The Malone kid didn't get to skip out on guard duty to serve on a political campaign. And the Malone kid didn't get to quit early to go back to school. [/quote] He didn't quit, but he chose to stay....He chose to stay a second tour. You're own words acknowledge this. It was his choice. [quote]Bush has never once proven to me that he served his time. And, worse yet, he's never even tried. He cares so little about his military record that he has never tried to defend it. That leaves me with two possibilities. Either he is lying or the evidence shows he did not serve honorably and was a beneficiary of cronyism. [/quote] Evidence? There is no evidence he didn't serve dishonorably. There is plenty of evidence he did his time and served honorably. What part of "Honorable Discharge" don't you get? Posted by: Tim Burton at February 4, 2004 11:13 PMWhat we are witnessing in this Bush/National Guard issue is just one more demonstration of Bush-bashing, political hate speech from DemocRATs and their leftist fellow travelers. The records prove that George W. Bush served America in the National Guard with honor, integrity and dedication. The public record proves that Terry McAuliffe is a lying, unethical, thieving S.O.B. whose mouth functions only when the arm of the Clinton's (which is inserted from his anus) operates the vocal chords and jawbone. The TIAT Michael Moore (T-urd In A T-uxedo) spews forth the slander about Bush being a 'deserter' and Weaseley Clark doesn't have enough iron in his spine to refute it, indeed General Strangelove all but embraces the latest lie from Moore. Al Gork shouts and bellows that 'Bush BETRAYED this country!' (exact quote) but nobody wants to ask about GORE betraying America with his antics in the 'most ethical administration in history' when he sold out the security of our airports when the airline industry went wailing to his 'commission' on airport security with concerns that improvements would cost them too much money. After Gore watered down the recommendations of his commission, generous contributions were made from the airline lobbyists to the Democratic Natl Committee. That too, is a matter of public record. Isn't it interesting that nobody has suggested that Gore's malfeasance and corruption was a factor in the failure to detect and prevent the 9/11 hijackers from boarding their planes in 2001? Oh but of course, Gore is a DEMOCRAT and RATS are immune from such questions in the lamestream media. And let us not forget about Clinton/Gore's lowering of export restrictions so that Communist China could obtain vast improvements in missile technology, tracking and targeting systems which allowed their strategic forces to make a 'great leap forward' (with Chairman Mao smiling somewhere down in Hell, no doubt)? And remember too, while we're talking about treason, that Armand Hammer, Lenin's buddy who worked hand in glove with the Soviets, bragged that he had a certain U.S. Senator 'in his hip pocket' and that Senator's name? Noneother than Al Gore SENIOR, the same Al Gore Sr. who filibustered to block the passage of the Civil Rights Act in the 1960's when Lyndon Johnson had to go to REPUBLICANS to get the Act passed through the Senate. It would not be unreasonable to conclude that TREASON runs in certain Tennessee families named GORE. And let's not forget John F'in Kerry who chose to throw not HIS medals, but somebody ELSE's medals over the fence at the Capitol when he decided there was more political advantage to giving aid and comfort to the Communists in North Vietnam like his comrade Jane Fonda. You want traitors people? Look no further than today's DemocRATs. The last honorable Democrats were Harry S Truman, Hubert Humphrey and Henry 'Scoop' Jackson, the kind of Democrat that Zell Miller (D-Ga) would have supported. But no more. Zeller has already announced that HE will support President Bush for re-election this year and that ought to speak volumes about what the 'Rat Party has de-evolved into. Get a clue people, the DemocRATs ARE the 'enemy within'. Posted by: J.B. Corrigan at February 10, 2004 11:07 AM"Bush volunteered to serve in a unit at the very moment it was seeing combat in Vietnam, and only a restructuring of the unit's mission before he completed his flight training made it unlikely he would fly in combat". That's a very dishonest enhancement of the facts. According to the official history the highest number of F-102s employed in "Palace Alert" in SEA at any one time was 22, and they were "exclusively employed in air defense". At the end of 1966 there were 12 in South Vietnam - six each at Bien Hoa and Da Nang, the other 10 in Thailand at Udorn and Don Muang. To my knowledge these pilots served a 90-day tour of duty. The danger was real, but it was Vietnam Lite - one Guard pilot chalked up 36 combat missions in the Palace Alert Program for a total of 56 combat hours. Posted by: Steve at February 26, 2004 02:17 PMPost a comment
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