[LANMaster]

Of course, this should put to rest all of the baseless allegations to the contrary, right?

Bush Guard Papers Out
Sep 7, 7:40 PM (ET)

By MATT KELLEY

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush was ranked in the middle of his Air National Guard class and flew more than 336 hours in a fighter jet before letting his pilot status lapse and missing a key readiness drill, according to his flight records belatedly uncovered Tuesday under the Freedom of Information Act.

The Pentagon and Bush's campaign have claimed for months that all records detailing his fighter pilot career have been made public, but defense officials said they found two dozen new records detailing his training and flight logs after The Associated Press filed a lawsuit and crafted new requests under the public records law.

"Previous requests from other requesters for President Bush's Individual Flight Records did not lead to the discovery of these records because at the time President Bush left the service, flight records were subject to retention for only 24 months and we understood that neither the Air Force nor the Texas Air National Guard retained such records thereafter," the Pentagon told the AP.

"Out of an abundance of caution," the government "searched a file that had been preserved in spite of this policy" and found the Bush records, the letter said. "The Department of Defense regrets this oversight during the previous search efforts."

The records show Bush, a lieutenant in the Texas Air National Guard, was ranked No. 22 in a class of 53 pilots when he finished his flight training at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia in 1969.

Over the next three years, he logged 326.4 hours as a pilot and an additional 9.9 hours as a co-pilot, mostly in his the F-102a jet used to intercept enemy aircraft.

The records show his last flight came on April 1972, which is consistent with his pay records that show Bush had a large lapse of duty between April and October of that year, a time he says he went to Alabama to work on an unsuccessful Republican Senate campaign. Bush skipped a required medical exam that cost his pilot's status in August 1972.

A six-month historical record of his 147th Fighter Interceptor Group, also turned over to the AP on Tuesday, shows some of the training Bush missed with his colleagues during that time.

Significantly, it showed the unit joined a "24-hour active alert mission to safeguard against surprise attack" in the southern United State beginning on Oct. 6, 1972, a time when Bush did not report for duty, according to his pay records.

Bush's lone service in October came at another air base an Alabama, where he sought temporary permission to train away from his assigned squadron.

As part of the mission, the 147th kept two F-102a jets - the same Bush flew before he lost his flight status for skipping a required medical exam - on ready alert to be launched within five minutes warning.

The records also indicate Bush made good grades, scoring an 88 on total airmanship and earning perfect 100 for flying without navigational instruments, operating a T-38 System and studying applied aerodynamics. Other scores ranged from 89 in flight planning to 98 in aviation physiology.



http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040907/D84V4DK80.html

[AcaCandy]

Originally Posted by LANMaster

"Out of an abundance of caution," the government "searched a file that had been preserved in spite of this policy" and found the Bush records, the letter said.

Amazing how things disappear and reappear in the White House no matter who lives there

[GrumpyHermit]

Originally Posted by AcaCandy

Amazing how things disappear and reappear in the White House no matter who lives there

They could probably find Judge Crater, Amelia Earhart and Jimmy Hoffa if they looked hard enough!

[Wino]

It's also amazing the new reports still do not show where Bush was or what he was doing while MIA from reserve duty.

[linskyjack]

Actually two people came out yesterday claiming that he wasn't where he said he was. One was a fellow officer and the other was a flight instructer. I"ll try to find the piece. Too bad the Swift Boat Boys had to do their hatchet job. Now we will spend a couple more weeks on these stupid issues. I repeat, Presidents are as morally ambiguous as the rest of us. Too bad the attacks on Clinton had to happen.

[Stoner]

Gives new meaning to 'new' news, eh, Wino........

[Wino]

Originally Posted by Stoner

Gives new meaning to 'new' news, eh, Wino........

Sigh and a big ho hum to new news that has no new news.

[plschwartz]

I posted it earlier in Bush fraudulant report

[Ciberblade]

I find his hours of flight-time interesting.

[bassetman]

Posted 9/7/2004 11:26 PM



'Texans for Truth' ad challenges Bush on
Guard service
By Mark Memmott, USA TODAY
A group called Texans for Truth will
release a TV ad today in which a former
lieutenant colonel in the Alabama Air
National Guard says neither he nor his
friends saw George W. Bush when the
future president was supposed to be with
their unit in 1972.

Robert Mintz
doesn't recall
seeing
George W.
Bush in
1972.

Texans for
Truth


The ad could renew questions about Bush's
Vietnam-era service in the National Guard,
just as ads by a group called Swift Boat
Veterans for Truth renewed debate over
Democratic presidential candidate John
Kerry's service in Vietnam and his anti-war
efforts.

Since the 2000 campaign, Bush has been
dogged by questions about whether he
reported for duty throughout his Guard
service. He served as a pilot with the Texas
Air National Guard and sought a transfer to
Alabama in 1972 so he could work on a
political campaign there. But some records
that could document his service in
Alabama are missing. (Related story:
New Bush records released)

Texans for Truth is an arm of
DriveDemocracy, an Austin-based
organization that got its initial funding
from the liberal group MoveOn.org.
Affiliates of MoveOn.org — MoveOn
PAC and MoveOn Voter Fund — have
spent about $7 million since March 1 on
anti-Bush TV ads.

DriveDemocracy is run by Glenn Smith,
who managed the unsuccessful 2002 Texas
gubernatorial campaign of Democrat Tony
Sanchez. Smith is a former managing
director at the consulting firm Public
Strategies. That firm employs former
Texas governor Ann Richards, a Democrat
whom Bush beat in 1994. Mark McKinnon,
the Bush-Cheney campaign's ad czar, is on
leave from the same firm.

In the new ad, retired lieutenant colonel
Robert Mintz says he "heard George W.
Bush get up there and say, 'I served in the
187th Air National Guard in Montgomery,
Alabama.'

"I said, 'Really? That was my unit. And I
don't remember seeing you there,' " Mintz
says. "So I called my friends and said, 'Did
you know that George Bush served in our
unit?' And everyone said, 'No, I never saw
him there.' It would be impossible to be
unseen in a unit of that size." Texans for
Truth plans to spend $100,000 to
$250,000 to run the ad for a week in
closely contested states that are home to
large numbers of families of U.S. troops
killed in Iraq. Such states include
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Oregon and
Arizona. But the group would not specify
which states it has bought ad time in.

The Bush-Cheney campaign is crying foul.
Charges that Bush failed to fulfill his
Guard duties are "baseless and false,"
campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said. "The president served honorably in the National
Guard, fulfilled his duties and was honorably discharged."

Kerry-Edwards campaign spokesman Chad Clanton said, "We've never heard of this outfit,"
referring to Texans for Truth.

[LANMaster]

[Wet Chicken]

Originally Posted by AcaCandy

Amazing how things disappear and reappear in the White House no matter who lives there

And you thought Photoshop was just for pictures

[Wet Chicken]

Originally Posted by bassetman

"I said, 'Really? That was my unit. And I don't remember seeing you there,' " Mintz says. "So I called my friends and said, 'Did you know that George Bush served in our unit?' And everyone said, 'No, I never saw him there.' It would be impossible to be unseen in a unit of that size."

OK well this is very easy to explain really. It appears that bush simply had his accountant write his military record

[barfly]

[quote=LANMaster]Of course, this should put to rest all of the baseless allegations to the contrary, right?


Significantly, it showed the unit joined a "24-hour active alert mission to safeguard against surprise attack" in the southern United State beginning on Oct. 6, 1972, a time when Bush did not report for duty, according to his pay records.

Bush's lone service in October came at another air base an Alabama, where he sought temporary permission to train away from his assigned squadron.

As part of the mission, the 147th kept two F-102a jets - the same Bush flew before he lost his flight status for skipping a required medical exam - on ready alert to be launched within five minutes warning.

The records also indicate Bush made good grades, scoring an 88 on total airmanship and earning perfect 100 for flying without navigational instruments, operating a T-38 System and studying applied aerodynamics. Other scores ranged from 89 in flight planning to 98 in aviation physiology.

QUOTE]


Bush made good grades, scoring an 88

That was an IQ test


The rest of it makes good reading between the lines (or rather behind)




Just joking ?

[xico]

What’s New in the Bush/National Guard Story?

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT

From the DNC:

New stories broke today about Bush’s record in the Texas Air National Guard during Vietnam. Key facts were revealed, including:

The AP uncovered two dozen additional records relating to Bush’s Guard service, despite Bush’s frequent claims to have released all of the documents.

A new independent analysis shows Bush did not fulfill his required duty in the Guard, putting himself at risk for call up to active duty, and contradicting previous Bush claims.

An officer in the Alabama National Guard has come forward, saying he specifically looked for, but never found, Bush while he was supposed to be reporting for duty in Alabama.

“He broke his contract with the United States government -- without any adverse consequences. And the Texas Air National Guard was complicit in allowing this to happen…He was a pilot. It cost the government a million dollars to train him to fly. So he should have been held to an even higher standard.”
-- Army Colonel Gerald A. Lechliter [Boston Globe, 9/8/04]

“It appears that no one wanted to hold him accountable.”
-- retired Major General Paul A. Weaver Jr., who retired in 2002 as the Pentagon’s director of the Air National Guard. [Boston Globe, 9/8/04]

1) New Records Uncovered

AP Uncovers More Bush Records. According to the Associated Press, “The Pentagon and Bush’s campaign have claimed for months that all records detailing his fighter pilot career have been made public, but defense officials said they found two dozen new records detailing his training and flight logs after The Associated Press filed a lawsuit and crafted new requests under the public records law.” [AP, 9/7/04]

Records Show Bush’s Rank in Guard Class and Flight Logs. According to records obtained by the AP, Bush “was ranked in the middle of his Air National Guard class and flew more than 336 hours in a fighter jet before letting his pilot status lapse and missing a key readiness drill, according to his flight records belatedly uncovered Tuesday under the Freedom of Information Act.” [AP, 9/7/04]

2) New Study Shows Bush Didn’t Meet Requirements

In 1973, Bush Signed Document That He Would Sign Up With New Unit; But He Never Did. According to the Boston Globe, “On July 30, 1973, shortly before he moved from Houston to Cambridge, Bush signed a document that declared, ‘It is my responsibility to locate and be assigned to another Reserve forces unit or mobilization augmentation position. If I fail to do so, I am subject to involuntary order to active duty for up to 24 months...’ Under Guard regulations, Bush had 60 days to locate a new unit. But Bush never signed up with a Boston-area unit.” [Boston Globe, 9/8/04]

In 1968, Bush Signed Document That State He Wouldn’t Miss Duty; But He Did. According to the Boston Globe “On May 27, 1968, Bush signed a ‘statement of understanding’ pledging to achieve ‘satisfactory participation’ that included attendance at 24 days of annual weekend duty - usually involving two weekend days each month - and 15 days of annual active duty. ‘I understand that I may be ordered to active duty for a period not to exceed 24 months for unsatisfactory participation,’ the statement reads. Yet Bush, a fighter-interceptor pilot, performed no service at all for one six-month period in 1972 and for another period of almost three months in 1973, the records show.” [Boston Globe, 9/8/04]

WH Spokesman Bartlett Concedes He “Misspoke.” “In 1999, Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett told the Washington Post that Bush finished his six-year commitment at a Boston area Air Force Reserve unit after he left Houston. Not so, Bartlett now concedes. ‘I must have misspoke,’ Bartlett, who is now the White House communications director, said in a recent interview.” [Boston Globe, 9/8/04]

FLASHBACK: In 1999, Bartlett Said Bush Transferred to Reserve Unit in Boston. To start at Harvard, Bush needed early release from Guard duty in Texas, and he got it easily, about eight months short of a full six years. A Bush spokesman, Dan Bartlett, said early departures were quite common and, in Bush’s case, appropriate because his unit had phased out the F-102s. Bush was transferred to a reserve unit in Boston for the rest of his time, Bartlett noted. [Washington Post, 7/28/99]

3)Alabama Guard Member Testifies to Bush’s Absence

Alabama Guardsman Was Looking For Bush in ‘72; Never Saw Him. “I’m sure I would have seen him,” former Alabama Guardsman Bob Mintz said of Bush. “It’s a small unit, and you couldn’t go in or out without being seen. It was too close a space.” There were only 25 to 30 pilots there, and Mr. Bush - a U.N. ambassador’s son who had dated Tricia Nixon - would have been particularly memorable. Mintz served in the military from 1959 to 1984. [Kristof, New York Times, 9/8/04]

“Mr. Mintz says he had heard that Mr. Bush - described as a young Texas pilot with political influence - had transferred to the base. He heard that Mr. Bush was also a bachelor, so he was looking forward to partying together. He’s confident that he’d remember if Mr. Bush had shown up.” [Kristof, New York Times, 9/8/04]

Flight Instructor At Alabama Base Didn’t See Bush. Leonard Walls, a retired Air Force colonel who was then a full-time pilot instructor at Dannelly Air National Guard Base in Montgomery. “I was there pretty much every day,” he said, adding: “I never saw him, and I was there continually from July 1972 to July 1974.” Mr. Walls, who describes himself as nonpolitical, added, “If he had been there more than once, I would have seen him.” [Kristof, New York Times, 9/8/04]

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT

*************************************************

Isn't that something!

Bush made good grades, scoring an 88

That was an IQ test

ROFLMAO Excellent!