Pacific Views

Bush's Magic Invisibility Cloak

[Ed: The media is going after Wesley Clark because Michael Moore dared call George W Bush a deserter. Although there might have been some better comebacks to the question (see Jeanne D'Orleans and Mark Kleiman), aWol's military status during the 1970s is still relevant. Right after his chicken strut act on May 1st when he played American war hero and the media decided he was the most magnificent President we had ever had, I decided to look into the 1970s charges - which I really don't ever remember hearing much about during the election. Here is what I found and documented on the Watch on May 7, 2003. ]

George W. Bush's military record was never something I looked into much but it seems to me that with his acting like he is a big military hero and his strutting around in a flight suit there is more than enough reason to check out the record again.

Today Andrew Sullivan decided that he had had enough of the anti-Bush people making a big deal about the "missing" year so he posted portions of a NY Times article (archive) written in November 2000 to his site:

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. Documents reviewed by The Times showed that Mr. Bush served in at least 9 of the 17 months in question....

On Sept. 5, 1972, Mr. Bush asked his Texas Air National Guard superiors for assignment to the 187th Tactical Recon Group in Montgomery "for the months of September, October and November."

Capt. Kenneth K. Lott, chief of the personnel branch of the 187th Tactical Recon Group, told the Texas commanders that training in September had already occurred but that more training was scheduled for Oct. 7 and 8 and Nov. 4 and 5.

But Mr. Bartlett said Mr. Bush did not serve on those dates because he was involved in the Senate campaign, but he made up those dates later. Colonel Turnipseed, who retired as a general, said in an interview that regulations allowed Guard members to miss duty as long as it was made up within the same quarter. Mr. Bartlett pointed to a document in Mr. Bush's military records that showed credit for four days of duty ending Nov. 29 and for eight days ending Dec. 14, 1972, and, after he moved back to Houston, on dates in January, April and May. The May dates correlated with orders sent to Mr. Bush at his Houston apartment on April 23, 1973, in which Sgt. Billy B. Lamar told Mr. Bush to report for active duty on May 1-3 and May 8-10. Another document showed that Mr. Bush served at various times from May 29, 1973, through July 30, 1973, a period of time questioned by The Globe.

But notice that she implies that Colonel Turnipseed backed up Bush's story as Bob Somerby noted in his column today.

In June 2000, Bartlett told the press Bush did serve with Turnipseed:

Spokesman Bartlett said Bush remembers meeting Turnipseed and performing drills in Montgomery sporadically during the campaign and more frequently after the election in November and December.

"Governor Bush specifically remembers pulling duty in Alabama at the end of the campaign," Bartlett said.

The Associated Press reviewed nearly 200 pages of Bush's military records released by the National Guard Bureau in Arlington, Va. They contained no evidence that Bush reported for duty in Alabama. [Ed: emphasis added]

But later, in a followup interview with Colonel Turnipseed he continues to state that he did not remember Bush showing up for service in Alabama.

In its October 16, 2000, issue, The New Republic reported: "In interviews last week, Turnipseed and his administrative officer at the time, Kenneth K. Lott, said they had no memory of Bush ever reporting. 'Had he reported in, I would have had some recall, and I do not,' Turnipseed said. 'I had been in Texas, done my flight training there. If we had had a first lieutenant from Texas, I would have remembered.'

"Turnipseed also [reported] that the then-squadron operations officer of the Alabama Guard also has no recollection of having seen Bush.

"Furthermore, a spokesman for the Alabama National Guard estimates there were 600 to 700 members in the unit Bush was supposed to have served with in 1972. But none of these men has ever come forward to say he remembers Bush, and Bush has not named a single one of them."

This becomes curiouser and curiouser. Why didn't anyone come forward? And why didn't Bush release his records? Especially since he says that he did serve with Turnipseed?

So I did some more Googling. And this is what I found. There are a number of questions about why George W. Bush didn't fly anymore after April 1972, but one thing is true, he could dispel all of the questions by voluntarily releasing his service record.

A voluntary disclosure of this kind is not without precedent. During the South Carolina Republican primary this campaign year, rumors were spread by fellow Senators about Senator John McCain's mental health as a result of his imprisonment as a POW. McCain immediately quashed those rumors by voluntarily releasing his entire military record, which confirmed no indications of adverse physical or mental conditions.

Thus, Bush could easily put to rest the questions surrounding "his failure to accomplish annual medical examination" - and his subsequent suspension - if he would simply release his complete military service record, which cannot be released by the Air Force without Bush's explicit consent.

Marty Heldt went to the trouble to request Bush's record through the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) and has provided the closest thing to the formal records that Bush has failed to released.

So here is a quick summary: he stops flying for some undisclosed reason in April 1972, and then is formally grounded in August 1972 and then he asks to transfer to Alabama where he never shows up according to Turnipseed and somehow everyone of the other 600-700 people he would have served with have completely forgotten that he was there.

I think that he must have a magic invisibility cloak, just like Frodo Baggins. Otherwise, someone would have remembered seeing him there.

More for the record: Finally the Truth about Bush's Military Service Record and an Index of articles by Marty Heldt.

Updated for the record: Both Uggabugga and Atrios have more links.