Talking Points on AWOL
- George W. Bush has rested his re-election on his status as "war president." His constant references to his military experience have made it an issue in his campaign.
- There are gaping holes in Bush's service record. The documents he has released don't mention his Flying Evaluation Board, the circumstances of his discharge, or any of his service time in Alabama.
- George W. Bush promised the American people, from the Oval Office itself, that he would release all documents related to his military service. He has broken his promise.
- The only rational conclusion is that George W. Bush has something to hide about his military service. Until he recounts the truth of his service experience, his integrity is in question.
5 Minute Guide on AWOL
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Bush made his military record a campaign issue by landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln in a flight suit and by frequently reminding America that he "flew jets" in Texas during the Vietnam war.
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Declaring the end of "major combat operations" in May 2003 [CNN 5/1/03], Bush donned a flight suit and flew in a Navy plane to the Aircraft Carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, about thirty miles off the coast of California. [Fox News 5/2/03 ; Fox News 5/2/03] The aircraft carrier flight was criticized almost immediately as a crass, expensive, taxpayer funded public relations stunt. [CBS News 5/8/03]
Bush later misleadingly claimed that some of the more theatrical aspects of the operation were arranged by the military. [CBS News, 11/11/03]
More recently, explaining his fondness for NASCAR, President Bush said to reporters, "I flew fighters when I was in the Guard, and I like speed." [Slate, 2/16/04 ] "I flew fighters and enjoyed it…" [Meet the Press, 2/8/04] "I flew fighters, F-102 aircraft. I met the qualifications. I met the training." [CNN, 2/2/04, quoting Bush in a 1999 interview] In his 2000 campaign autobiography, George W. Bush claimed that he flew jets in the National Guard until he got out in September 1973.
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He so often reminds us that he "flew jets" that it is impossible to believe he is sincere when he says he can't remember deciding in 1972 to disobey orders and stop flying.
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Facts surrounding Bush’s "puzzling" decision to stop flying remain "murky." [USA Today 2/15/04] His February 2004 "document dump" fail to clarify exactly why he missed his flight physical and was grounded from flying plains. [Salon 2/17/04] President Bush’s first explanation for his failure to take has qualifying medical examination was that his family physician wasn’t available in Alabama. [Boston Globe 2/12/04] Air National Guard medical examinations are administered by base physicians, though. His next explanations were that there weren’t F-102 fighter planes in Alabama, and that the F-102 was being phased out of the National Guard. [President Bush’s autobiography, A Charge to Keep; Washington Post 6/26/00; Washington Post 2/22/04] The F-102 wasn’t phased out in Texas until 1974, after Bush left the National Guard, and while in Alabama, he "could easily have been checked out to fly in the Phantom II." [New York Times 2/15/04; Washington Post 6/26/00; Boston Globe 7/28/2000] His final explanation was that he simply "decided to quit flying," that "there was no reason for him to take the flight physical exam." [London Times 6/18/00; Washington Post 2/22/04] Obviously, a trained, heavily invested National Guard pilot can’t simply decide to quit flying on his own. [New York Daily News 2/12/04; Time 2/23/04]
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It costs the taxpayer a lot of money to train a single fighter pilot. That's why flight status is not something pilots decide for themselves. For example, if a pilot says has chronic flight sickness or panic attacks, or just gets bored of flying and wants a different line of work, the Air Force opens a "Flying Evaluation Board." The board decides whether or not to release the soldier from his obligation to serve as a pilot. More ››
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When Bush refused to keep flying jets in 1972, a Flying Evaluation Board must have been convened. The Bush administration hasn't released the records from that inquiry.
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Bush personally promised to authorize the release of his entire military record in an interview from the Oval Office on 'Meet the Press' with Tim Russert. A few days later, after pressure from the media, the White House released a few documents. After more pressure to fulfill the President's promise, the White House released many documents, but not all. His Oval Office promise still goes unfulfilled, raising the question: is the White House hiding something embarrassing from Bush's record.
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Bush’s promise to release his documents was unequivocal. [Meet the Press, 2/8/04] The first new documents were illegible computer summaries of payroll records. [CNN 2/10/04; International Herald Tribune 2/11/04] The second set of documents was an incomplete hodgepodge of performance, payroll, enlistment, and medical records. [Knight Ridder 2/13/04] The medical records were shown for twenty minutes to reporters in the White House, but never released to the public. [Knight Ridder 2/13/04] Significant records remain unreleased. At bare minimum, Bush’s FEB records are missing, and the important Department of Defense Form 44 is missing for 1972 and 1973.
Under 10 U.S.C. § 673a (1967) and Executive Order 11366 [Executive Order 11366], a reservist that did not "participate satisfactorily" in the ready reserve could be involuntarily activated and sent to Vietnam. George Bush acknowledged that this would happen in his enlistment packet. [Enlistment Packet. at 17] The Texas Air National Guard was harsh in punishing reservists that didn’t satisfactorily participate, especially people that showed up for duty with long hair. [Talley v. McLucas, 366 F. Supp. 1241, 1241-1242 (N. D. Texas 1973)] The National Guard sends an annual form, DoD Form 44, to draft boards advising them that a reservist is participating. [Winters v. United States, 281 F. Supp. 289, 292 (U.S. Dist., 1968)] Bush has not released those files.
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A former National Guard officer has said that he witnessed other officers destroying "embarrassing" documents from Governor George W. Bush's service record.
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Bill Burkett, a former top adviser to the state Guard commander, "said he overheard conversations in which superiors discussed "cleansing" the [Bush personnel] file of damaging information." [USA Today 2/11/04; CalPundit 2/15/04] Burkett has been consistently making these arguments since 2000. [Online Journal 11/4/00]
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Bush quit flying right when drug testing began in military physicals. That fact has caused speculation that the records still being withheld by the White House may contain information about a problem with drugs or alcohol.
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Near the end of 1971, the US Air Force introduced a drug screening policy, which it extended to reservists in April 1972. "The annual medical exam that year included a routine analysis of urine, a close examination of the nasal cavities and specific questions about drugs." [London Times 6/18/00] Guardsmen in Alabama may or may not have been subject to random drug testing, "but as of April 1972, Air National guardsmen knew random drug testing was going to be implemented." [Time 2/23/04; Salon 2/6/04]
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Bush, his spokesmen and his campaign have given several conflicting accounts of his attendance in the guard after he stopped flying and moved to Alabama. Each time someone on the Bush team opens their mouth on this, more questions are raised.
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In the 2000 campaign, Bush and his aides claimed that he served a single day with the Alabama unit, November 29, 1972 [thomaspaine.com 9/27/00; New York Times 7/22/00] When the first set of payroll records was released in February 2004, the documents represented that Bush was in Alabama in late October and early November, not late November. [Salon 2/11/04] Bush claimed that he left Alabama shortly after the election, in November 1972. He then released dental records representing that he was in Alabama in January 1973. [NY Newsday 2/14/04]
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So far only one former Guardsman — a former officer and fervent Bush supporter — has said that he saw Bush serving during the period in question. The dubious story is that Bush served his remaining guard duty entirely in the officer's office, reading magazines — thereby explaining why no other Guardsmen can remember Bush. Bush and his spokespeople have not commented on this story.
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John Calhoun claims that he saw Bush on Dannelly Air Force base "eight to 10 times for roughly eight hours at a time from May to October 1972." Bush’s payroll records only credit him with service in late October and early November [NY Daily News, 2/16/04], and didn’t request to serve at Dannelly until September 1972. [Talkingpointsmemo.com]
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Dozens of other former guardsmen from Bush's Alabama unit — where he says he served for five-months — have been interviewed by the Associated Press, the Washington Post, and the New York Times. None have said they remember Bush serving.
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The New York Times interviewed 16 former Alabama Guardsmen, none of whom remembered George W. Bush. [New York Times, 2/15/04] The Washington Post interviewed a number of former Guardsmen and former Blount campaign workers, and none of them could provide concrete evidence of Bush attending guard duties. [Washington Post 2/15/04] The Associated Press contacted more than a dozen former guardsmen, without finding anyone that could confirm Bush’s attendance. [Boston Globe 2/12/04]
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Two pilots who served in Bush's Alabama Guard unit say they heard he was coming and actually sought him out for months -- and never found him. They heard the son of a Congressman was coming and wanted to meet him. More ››
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