[Mb-civic] USA Today: Questions about Bush's Guard service unanswered

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

    Questions about Bush's 
    Guard service unanswered 
    By Dave Moniz and Jim Drinkard, USA TODAY
    http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/presid
    ent/2004-08-23-bush-service_x.htm
    Tuesday, August 24, 2004
    
    WASHINGTON - At a time when Democratic presidential 
    candidate John Kerry has come under fire from a group of retired 
    naval officers who say he lied about his combat record in 
    Vietnam, questions about President Bush's 1968-73 stint in the 
    Texas Air National Guard remain unresolved:
    
üWhy did Bush, described by some of his fellow officers 
    as a talented and enthusiastic pilot, stop flying fighter jets in the 
    spring of 1972 and fail to take an annual physical exam required 
    of all pilots? 
    
üWhat explains the apparent gap in the president's 
    Guard service in 1972-73, a period when commanders in Texas 
    and Alabama say they never saw him report for duty and records 
    show no pay to Bush when he was supposed to be on duty in 
    Alabama? 
    
üDid Bush receive preferential treatment in getting into 
    the Guard and securing a coveted pilot slot despite poor 
    qualifying scores and arrests, but no convictions, for stealing a 
    Christmas wreath and rowdiness at a football game during his 
    college years? 
    
    The White House has released hundreds of pages of records, but 
    the files released so far haven't answered those questions. Since 
    the documents were released in February, at least a half-dozen 
    news organizations, including USA TODAY, have filed new 
    requests for Bush's military records under the Freedom of 
    Information Act. 
    
    In an e-mail to USA TODAY last week, presidential spokesman 
    Dan Bartlett said: "The president has authorized the release of 
    his records and we are complying with all requests. Some are 
    taking longer than others, but all will be addressed."
    
    Past military service and qualifications to be commander in chief 
    have become a central theme in the 2004 presidential campaign. 
    
    Questions about Bush's record predate the current campaign. 
    The apparent gap in his Guard service first surfaced before the 
    2000 election, when The Boston Globe reported that Texas Guard 
    commanders were unable to account for Bush's whereabouts from 
    May 1972 to April 1973.
    
    Bush has not said what he did in the Guard during that period. 
    Aside from a statement by a former Alabama Air Guard officer 
    who said he saw Bush report for duty there in the fall of 1972, 
    the only evidence he was at Dannelly Air National Guard Base in 
    Alabama was a record of a dental exam on Jan. 6, 1973, at the 
    base. 
    
    Bush said in a TV interview in February that he would make all 
    his military records available. That month, the White House 
    released more than 400 pages of Bush military records, including 
    some duplicates, and said the documents were a complete 
    catalog of his personnel files.
    
    But some documents still have not been made public. The White 
    House did not release Bush's medical records from his Guard files 
    but allowed a group of reporters who cover the White House to 
    review them for 20 minutes. They found nothing unusual. Kerry 
    released some of his military records earlier this year. He has 
    also declined to release his complete medical records but showed 
    them to reporters as Bush did.
    
    Since February, the White House has banned all Guard and 
    military commanders outside the Pentagon from commenting on 
    Bush's records or service. Requests for information must go to 
    the Pentagon's Freedom of Information Act office. 
    
    The Pentagon last week responded to a 4-month-old request from 
    USA TODAY for additional records from Bush's files by sending 
    another copy of documents that were released by the White 
    House in February. The documents do not address the 
    unexplained year in Bush's Guard service or his decision to stop 
    flying. 
    
    The Associated Press filed a lawsuit this summer requesting 
    copies of Bush's military records stored in a Texas archive on 
    microfilm. It sought information that might explain why Bush 
    did not take his flight physical and whether he showed up for 
    duty in Alabama in the fall of 1972, AP spokesman John Stokes 
    said.
    


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