Gore went to Vietnam. Bush went AWOL.
Boston Globe Story Confirms Allegation Made in Jim Hatfield's 'Fortunate Son' -
Concerning Dubya's Less-Than-Exemplary Air Guard Service
Today has been good for me, a Clinton-Gore fan.
Yes, it has been a good day, despite the ruling handed down by four members of a six-person committee (which, thanks to a recusal-pressure campaign led by the Republican-owned-and-operated Arkansas 'Democrat'-Gazette, was pared down from its original fourteen members to a six-person group composed mostly of GOP operatives) that recommended the disbarring of the President, in spite of all precedent and common sense.
For one thing, the disbarment case now goes to the Pulaski Country Circuit Court, and that group is going to be far less susceptible to pressure than was the Little Rock outfit.
For another thing, the intense media play given this story gives the lie to the media's constant excuses, when asked why they don't mention things like Joe Conason's and Gene Lyons' The Hunting of the President hitting #12 on the New York Times book list, or the strong censure given by Judge Susan Webber Wright to Ken Starr ( so when is the Scaife Legal Foundation going to try to disbar Kenny? ), that "nobody cares about that anymore, it's old news."
They must think somebody cares, if they're going to make front-page news out of it. But something has happened that puts all of that in the shade.
Remember Jim Hatfield's book Fortunate Son? That's the book that got pulled from the shelves when Dubya and his powerful family threw a hissy fit, even as Regnery lie-fests like Gary Aldrich's Unlimited Access pollute the remainder tables.
The book, granted, is rather uneven, and many of the claims made are lacking in factual basis, but one of the most controversial claims in the book has now been documented by The Boston Globe.
In a 05/23/00 Page 01A story credited to Walter V. Robinson and the Globe Staff, the following is stated :
After George W. Bush became governor in 1995, the Houston Air National Guard unit he had served with during the Vietnam War years honored him for his work, noting that he flew an F-102 fighter-interceptor until his discharge in October 1973.
And Bush himself, in his 1999 autobiography, 'A Charge to Keep,' recounts the thrills of his pilot training, which he completed in June 1970." I continued flying with my unit for the next several years," the governor wrote.
But both accounts are contradicted by copies of Bush's military records, obtained by the Globe.
In his final 18 months of military service in 1972 and 1973, Bush did not fly at all. And for much of that time, Bush was all but unaccounted for :
For a full year, there is no record that he showed up for the periodic drills required of part-time guardsmen.
-----You read that right, ladies and gentlemen : Bush was AWOL for a WHOLE YEAR.
-----Bush, who declined to be interviewed on the issue, said through a spokesman that he has ''some recollection'' of attending drills that year, but maybe not consistently.
-----"Some recollection." Suuuure you do, Dubya. Hah. So why wasn't Dubya attending drills and performing his Texas Guard duties during this time? He was too busy playing politics -- literally :
-----From May to November 1972, Bush was in Alabama working in a US Senate campaign, and was required to attend drills at an Air National Guard unit in Montgomery. But there is no evidence in his record that he did so. And William Turnipseed, the retired general who commanded the Alabama unit back then, said in an interview last week that Bush never appeared for duty there.
-----In his first four years in the Texas Air National Guard, according to his military records, Dubya had a busy schedule of full-time training and drills. But during his fifth year as a guardsman, after April 1972, Bush's records show no sign that he ever appeared for duty at all.
In a word, he was AWOL : Absent Without Leave.
The Globe's timeline of Dubya's post-April-1972 military career is as follows :
-----May 24, 1972 : Bush, who has moved to Alabama to work on a US Senate race, gets permission to serve with a reserve unit in Alabama. But headquarters decided Bush must serve with a more active unit.
Sept. 5, 1972 : Bush is granted permission to do his Guard duty at the 187th Tactical Recon Group in Montgomery. But Bush's record shows no evidence he did the duty, and the unit commander says he never showed up.
November 1972 to April 30, 1973 : Bush returns to Houston, but apparently not to his Air Force unit.
May 2, 1973 : The two lieutenant colonels in charge of Bush's unit in Houston cannot rate him for the prior 12 months, saying he has not been at the unit in that period.
May to July 1973 : Bush, after special orders are issued for him to report for duty, logs 36 days of duty.
July 30, 1973 : His last day in uniform, according to his records.
Oct. 1, 1973 : A month after Bush starts at Harvard Business School, he is formally discharged from the Texas Air National Guard -- eight months before his six-year term expires.
-----Ladies and gentlemen, this stinks to high heaven. As has been documented long ago, Dubya had all manner of strings pulled merely to get him into the Air Guard and away from actual combat -- even though he did horribly on the pilot's exams -- yet still be able to claim "military service" on his political resume later on in the future. Then, once he gets into the Air Guard and does four years, he suddenly decides "That's enough, time to work on my REAL career, the Bush Political Dynasty", and goes AWOL for a year.
All while we still were fighting the Vietnam War.
Meanwhile, the young Al Gore wasn't sure how he felt about the war.
On the one hand, he wasn't sure that fighting North Vietnam was particularly wise. On the other, he wanted to see first-hand whether it was a good or bad idea. He solved his dilemma by become a reporter for Stars and Stripes, and went to Vietnam, where he was putting his butt on the line covering the war. The journalism bug bit him hard enough that he later spent five years with the Nashville Tennessean.
Dubya, on the other hand, wanted to have a military career just long enough to give him lots of neat photos of himself in uniform to use in his campaign literature, but he didn't want to actually risk getting his hands dirty, much less risk his gold-plated hiney that was being so carefully groomed for higher office.
But I digress.
Here's the Globe again :
----When the Globe first raised questions about this period earlier this month, Bartlett, Bush's spokesman, referred a reporter to Albert Lloyd Jr., a retired colonel who was the Texas Air Guard's personnel director from 1969 to 1995. Lloyd, who a year ago helped the Bush campaign make sense of the governor's military records, said Bush's aides were concerned about the gap in his records back then.
----- Uh-huh. Make that "terrified".
-----On May 24, 1972, after he moved to Alabama, Bush made a formal request to do his equivalent training at the 9921st Air Reserve Squadron at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. Two days later, that unit's commander, Lieutenant Colonel Reese H. Bricken, agreed to have Bush join his unit temporarily. In Houston, Bush's superiors approved. But a higher headquarters disapproved, noting that Bricken's unit did not have regular drills. "We met just one weeknight a month. We were only a postal unit. We had no airplanes. We had no pilots. We had no nothing,'' Bricken said in an interview. Last week, Lloyd said he is mystified why Bush's superiors at the time approved duty at such a unit.
-----I'll tell you why: so George could spend all his time playing politics.
----- Inexplicably, months went by with no resolution to Bush's status -- and no Guard duty. Bush's evident disconnection from his Guard duties was underscored in August, when he was removed from flight status for failing to take his annual flight physical.
-----Remember that? He wanted to have his own personal physician do the physical. I wonder why? Would it be because the family's own doc would be less likely to rat out Dubya if he tested positive for drugs or booze?
----- Finally, on Sept. 5, 1972, Bush requested permission to do duty for September, October, and November at the 187th Tactical Recon Group in Montgomery. Permission was granted, and Bush was directed to report to Turnipseed, the unit's commander. In interviews last week, Turnipseed and his administrative officer at the time, Kenneth K. Lott, said they had no memory of Bush ever reporting.
-----Oops!
-----Lloyd, the retired Texas Air Guard official, said he does not know whether Bush performed duty in Alabama. ''If he did, his drill attendance should have been certified and sent to Ellington, and there would have been a record. We cannot find the records to show he fulfilled the requirements in Alabama,'' he said. Indeed, Bush's discharge papers list his service and duty station for each of his first four years in the Air Guard. But there is no record of training listed after May 1972, and no mention of any service in Alabama. On that discharge form, Lloyd said, ''there should have been an entry for the period between May 1972 and May 1973.''...
... In an effort last year to solve the puzzle, Lloyd said he scoured Guard records, where he found two ''special orders'' commanding Bush to appear for active duty on nine days in May 1973. That is the same month that Lieutenant Colonel William D. Harris Jr. and Lieutenant Colonel Jerry B. Killian effectively declared Bush missing from duty.
In Bush's annual efficiency report, dated May 2, 1973, the two supervising pilots did not rate Bush for the prior year, writing, ''Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit during the period of report. A civilian occupation made it necessary for him to move to Montgomery, Alabama. He cleared this base on 15 May 1972 and has been performing equivalent training in a non-flying status with the 187 Tac Recon Gp, Dannelly ANG Base, Alabama."
Asked about that declaration, campaign spokesman Bartlett said Bush told him that since he was no longer flying, he was doing ''odds and ends'' under different supervisors whose names he could not recall. But retired colonel Martin, the unit's former administrative officer, said he too thought Bush had been in Alabama for that entire year. Harris and Killian, he said, would have known if Bush returned to duty at Ellington.
And Bush, in his autobiography, identifies the late colonel Killian as a friend, making it even more likely that Killian knew where Bush was. Lieutenant Bush, to be sure, had gone off flying status when he went to Alabama. But had he returned to his unit in November 1972, there would have been no barrier to him flying again, except passing a flight physical.
Although the F-102 was being phased out, his unit's records show that Guard pilots logged thousands of hours in the F-102 in 1973. During his search, Lloyd said, the only other paperwork he discovered was a single torn page bearing Bush's social security number and numbers awarding some points for Guard duty. But the partial page is undated. If it represents the year in question, it leaves unexplained why Bush's two superior officers would have declared him absent for the full year.
----Double Oops!
----- There is no doubt that Bush was in Houston in late 1972 and early 1973. During that period, according to Bush's autobiography, he held a civilian job working for an inner-city, antipoverty program in the city ... ... Bush's last day in uniform before he moved to Cambridge was July 30, 1973.
His official release from active duty was dated Oct. 1, 1973, eight months before his six-year commitment was scheduled to end. Officially, the period between May 1972 and May 1973 remains unaccounted for.
In November 1973, responding to a request from the headquarters of the Air National Guard for Bush's annual evaluation for that year, Martin, the Ellington administrative officer, wrote, ''Report for this period not available for administrative reasons."
-----Uh-huh. Surrrrre it was.
----After the election, Bush returned to Houston. But seven months later, in May 1973, his two superior officers at Ellington Air Force Base could not perform his annual evaluation covering the year from May 1, 1972 to April 30, 1973 because, they wrote, ''Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit during the period of this report."
Bush, they mistakenly concluded, had been training with the Alabama unit for the previous 12 months. Both men have since died. But Ellington's top personnel officer at the time, retired Colonel Rufus G. Martin, said he had believed that First Lieutenant Bush completed his final year of service in Alabama.