9.9.04
Guardian Unlimited
Bush under pressure over military record
Sarah Left and agencies
Thursday September 9, 2004
The US president, George Bush, was today under growing scrutiny over his Vietnam-era service record after several different sources questioned his time in the Texas and Alabama air national guards.
In one of the most damaging attacks, Ben Barnes, the former lieutenant governor of Texas, said he had helped Mr Bush dodge the Vietnam draft by securing him a sought-after place in the Texas air national guard.
In 1968, the 29-year-old Mr Barnes was the Democratic speaker of the Texas House of Representatives. Mr Bush, who had just graduated from Yale, was coming up for the draft as his exemption for being at university expired. At the time, his father, George Bush Snr, was a US congressman.
In an interview last night, Mr Barnes told the US television station CBS that he had been approached by Sid Adger, an oilman close to the Bush family, who had asked whether he could find a place in the national guard for the young Mr Bush.
Mr Barnes - now a prominent supporter of John Kerry - told CBS he had used his connections to ensure Mr Bush was safely placed in the national guard, a post that made it unlikely he would be sent to fight in Vietnam.
He added it was one of the few options available for escaping fighting in Vietnam without fleeing to Canada, as many had done. "I was a young, ambitious politician doing what I thought was acceptable," he said in the interview. "It was important to make friends.
"I would describe it as preferential treatment. There were hundreds of names on the list of people wanting to get into the air national guard or the army national guard."
The claims came as CBS reporters unearthed personal memos kept by Mr Bush's squadron commander in Texas, who said he had failed to meet national guard standards and had flouted an order to take his annual flight physical.
Lt Col Jerry Killian, who died in 1984, ordered Mr Bush to be suspended from flight status for those infractions. The memo goes on to note that Mr Bush was trying to transfer to non-flying status with a unit in Alabama, and recommends that the Texas unit fill his flying slot "with a more seasoned pilot from the list of qualified Vietnam pilots that have rotated".
A memo written by Killian a year later referred to one military official "pushing to sugar-coat" Mr Bush's annual evaluation.
In February, the White House said it had released all records of Mr Bush's service - but one of Killian's memos stated it was "for record" and another suggested it was to be included in Mr Bush's official record.
"I can't explain why that wouldn't be in his record, but they were found in Jerry Killian's personal records," the White House communications director, Dan Bartlett, told CBS.
Mr Bartlett said Mr Bush's superiors granted him permission to train in Alabama in a non-flying status, and that "many of the documents you have here affirm just that". Mr Bush had been seeking the transfer to Alabama to work on a political campaign.
Another of Killian's memos, dated May 19 1972 - five days after Mr Bush was supposed to have completed his physical - summarises a telephone discussion with Mr Bush about how he "can get out of coming to drill from now through November".
It says Mr Bush was "told he could do ET for three months or transfer". ET referred to equivalent training, a procedure for meeting training requirements without attending regularly scheduled drills.
The same memo says "we talked about him getting his flight physical situation fixed" and quotes Mr Bush as saying he would "do that in Alabama" if he stayed in a flight status. It also says: "I advised him of our investment in him and his commitment."
The Democratic party chairman, Terry McAuliffe said: "George Bush's cover story on his National Guard service is rapidly unravelling.
"[He] needs to answer why he regularly misled the American people about his time in the guard, and who applied political pressure on his behalf to have his performance reviews 'sugar-coated'."
Records released this year, when Mr Bush's military service re-emerged as a campaign issue, contain no evidence that he attended for duty at all for five months in mid-1972, and document only a few occasions later that year.
Asked about Killian's memo on the military's investment in Mr Bush, Mr Bartlett told CBS: "For anybody to try to interpret or presume they know what somebody who is now dead was thinking in any of these memos, I think is very difficult to do."
Scrutiny of Mr Bush's military service has followed Republican attacks on Mr Kerry's service in Vietnam.
Yesterday, a group calling itself Texans for Truth - an echo of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, who have questioned Mr Kerry's service - aired a 30-second advertisement claiming that Mr Bush did not show up for service in the Alabama air national guard after his transfer from Killian's unit.
In the advert, retired Lt Col Robert Mintz said he could not remember Mr Bush serving in his unit, the 187th air national guard in Montgomery, Alabama.
"I called my friends and said: 'Did you know that George Bush served in our unit?'. Everyone said: 'No, I never saw him there.' It would be impossible to be unseen in a unit of that size," he says in the ad.
Mr Bartlett, however, hit back, telling CBS: "The fact is that, 55 days before an election, partisan Democrats are recycling the very same charges we hear every time President Bush runs for re-election. It is dirty politics."
Bush under pressure over military record
Sarah Left and agencies
Thursday September 9, 2004
The US president, George Bush, was today under growing scrutiny over his Vietnam-era service record after several different sources questioned his time in the Texas and Alabama air national guards.
In one of the most damaging attacks, Ben Barnes, the former lieutenant governor of Texas, said he had helped Mr Bush dodge the Vietnam draft by securing him a sought-after place in the Texas air national guard.
In 1968, the 29-year-old Mr Barnes was the Democratic speaker of the Texas House of Representatives. Mr Bush, who had just graduated from Yale, was coming up for the draft as his exemption for being at university expired. At the time, his father, George Bush Snr, was a US congressman.
In an interview last night, Mr Barnes told the US television station CBS that he had been approached by Sid Adger, an oilman close to the Bush family, who had asked whether he could find a place in the national guard for the young Mr Bush.
Mr Barnes - now a prominent supporter of John Kerry - told CBS he had used his connections to ensure Mr Bush was safely placed in the national guard, a post that made it unlikely he would be sent to fight in Vietnam.
He added it was one of the few options available for escaping fighting in Vietnam without fleeing to Canada, as many had done. "I was a young, ambitious politician doing what I thought was acceptable," he said in the interview. "It was important to make friends.
"I would describe it as preferential treatment. There were hundreds of names on the list of people wanting to get into the air national guard or the army national guard."
The claims came as CBS reporters unearthed personal memos kept by Mr Bush's squadron commander in Texas, who said he had failed to meet national guard standards and had flouted an order to take his annual flight physical.
Lt Col Jerry Killian, who died in 1984, ordered Mr Bush to be suspended from flight status for those infractions. The memo goes on to note that Mr Bush was trying to transfer to non-flying status with a unit in Alabama, and recommends that the Texas unit fill his flying slot "with a more seasoned pilot from the list of qualified Vietnam pilots that have rotated".
A memo written by Killian a year later referred to one military official "pushing to sugar-coat" Mr Bush's annual evaluation.
In February, the White House said it had released all records of Mr Bush's service - but one of Killian's memos stated it was "for record" and another suggested it was to be included in Mr Bush's official record.
"I can't explain why that wouldn't be in his record, but they were found in Jerry Killian's personal records," the White House communications director, Dan Bartlett, told CBS.
Mr Bartlett said Mr Bush's superiors granted him permission to train in Alabama in a non-flying status, and that "many of the documents you have here affirm just that". Mr Bush had been seeking the transfer to Alabama to work on a political campaign.
Another of Killian's memos, dated May 19 1972 - five days after Mr Bush was supposed to have completed his physical - summarises a telephone discussion with Mr Bush about how he "can get out of coming to drill from now through November".
It says Mr Bush was "told he could do ET for three months or transfer". ET referred to equivalent training, a procedure for meeting training requirements without attending regularly scheduled drills.
The same memo says "we talked about him getting his flight physical situation fixed" and quotes Mr Bush as saying he would "do that in Alabama" if he stayed in a flight status. It also says: "I advised him of our investment in him and his commitment."
The Democratic party chairman, Terry McAuliffe said: "George Bush's cover story on his National Guard service is rapidly unravelling.
"[He] needs to answer why he regularly misled the American people about his time in the guard, and who applied political pressure on his behalf to have his performance reviews 'sugar-coated'."
Records released this year, when Mr Bush's military service re-emerged as a campaign issue, contain no evidence that he attended for duty at all for five months in mid-1972, and document only a few occasions later that year.
Asked about Killian's memo on the military's investment in Mr Bush, Mr Bartlett told CBS: "For anybody to try to interpret or presume they know what somebody who is now dead was thinking in any of these memos, I think is very difficult to do."
Scrutiny of Mr Bush's military service has followed Republican attacks on Mr Kerry's service in Vietnam.
Yesterday, a group calling itself Texans for Truth - an echo of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, who have questioned Mr Kerry's service - aired a 30-second advertisement claiming that Mr Bush did not show up for service in the Alabama air national guard after his transfer from Killian's unit.
In the advert, retired Lt Col Robert Mintz said he could not remember Mr Bush serving in his unit, the 187th air national guard in Montgomery, Alabama.
"I called my friends and said: 'Did you know that George Bush served in our unit?'. Everyone said: 'No, I never saw him there.' It would be impossible to be unseen in a unit of that size," he says in the ad.
Mr Bartlett, however, hit back, telling CBS: "The fact is that, 55 days before an election, partisan Democrats are recycling the very same charges we hear every time President Bush runs for re-election. It is dirty politics."
