I’ve been reading a bit more about the Bush ‘timeline’ in the guard, and this is what appears happened:
In May of 1972, Bush applies for a transfer to an inactive or holding unit in Alabama. His immediate superior approves. Off goes Bush. I’m not sure there were requirements for appearing anywhere if you are assigned to this ‘unit’.
Bush’s paperwork makes its way up the line, and his request is denied by higher-ups.
Word gets back to Bush. He re-applies to another Alabama guard unit which is active.
Eventually, his request is approved, in Sept. 1972. Bush eventually shows up in Alabama. Despite the handwaving to the contrary, this does in fact seem to be the case. There are now at least two eye witnesses who put him there. General Turnipseed, the man who started this whole brouhaha by claiming Bush never showed up, has now admitted that his memory is faulty and says that he’s sure that Calhoun (the guy who says he served with Bush in Alabama) is correct, and Bush was there. He regrets ever having said anything.
Now, it does appear that there was a gap longer than the minimum required 3 months during which Bush did not appear for duty. But wouldn’t the above paperwork snafu explain that? His original application for assignment was made in May, and his final assignment came through in September. Bush’s medical expired on Aug 1 of that year, which appears to me to be a time during which he was technically not assigned to any unit. No surprise then that he’d let his flight medical lapse. It also appears that the Guard kinda screwed Bush over at this point, too. His superior officer said, “You’re good to go.”, then Bush went, then the order was countermanded. This would be a obvious extenuating service for overlooking the drill gap - especially since, as a pilot Bush already had racked up many more ‘points’ than were necessary for that point in his guard career. Interestingly, Bush’s last medical, in May of 1973, apparently indicates that he was a crewmember on flight status, which would indicate that the medical lapse in August was corrected at some point and Bush got his wings back. Either that, or it’s yet another paperwork snafu.
Later that year, Bush is accepted to the Harvard Business School. He is transferred to an inactive unit in Colorado, and goes to Harvard. Om the next summer he applies for an early release from the Guard. At this point, the war is winding down, and there’s a glut of pilots coming home. Plus, Bush’s squadron is transitioning to the F-101, so if the Guard keeps him for another 8 months to make him meet his minimum requirements they’ll either have to give him make-work, or spend huge bucks on transition training for a pilot who’s ready to leave anyway. So, quite reasonably the Guard lets Bush go. This was apparently a very common occurance around this time.
Finally, we have the documents that really matter - Bush’s honorable discharge. It appears that whatever Bush did in those years, it was good enough for the Guard.
Here’s a cite for this timeline. I verified the dates against images of the actual photocopies of Bush’s points record, and it matches that account.
While digging this stuff up, I found some other interesting comments from people who knew Bush:
Got that? Dangerous duty - Bush was good at it. He volunteered for Vietnam - with three other guys, two of which were accepted and went. So it’s not like it was just an offhand comment about wanting to go, or a stunt to volunteer when it was obvious no one would go. Bush had every reason to believe that he might be accepted - he didn’t have the minimum required hours, but he could easily have been accepted and sent for further training or told to build his hours and report back when he hit 500 (he probably had about 400 at this time).
But this is the quote I really love:
If anyone would like to contradict this account, I’m all ears.
White House communications director Dan Bartlett said yesterday that the reason Bush’s supervisors could not evaluate him in May 1973 was because he was no longer flying, and was, therefore, performing various odd jobs and not reporting to any one commander. Bartlett also confirmed that Bush’s complete personnel file is being forwarded to Washington from an archive in Denver for review.
Albert C. Lloyd, a retired personnel officer in the Texas Air National Guard – who helped the White House review Bush’s file both in 2000 and recently – said “original documentation” would have been filed when Bush performed his duties stating exactly where they were performed and what he did. “The document goes to the payroll office and shows he performed at X place for X hours on X dates,” Lloyd said from his home in Austin.
Lloyd said he voted for Bush in 2000 but that he has not decided whether he will vote for the president again. “I’m not happy with him,” he said. He declined to elaborate. "
You mean this Lt. Col. Albert C. Lloyd? Who now contradicts the Admin’s account of the “odd jobs” being unreported, hence undocumented?
While we’re in the vicinity, the following. The gallant Lt. Bush, we are given to understand, did not recieve preferential treatment in qualifying for pilot training, since he was willing to make the committment to aviation at a time when pilots for his prospective unit were in short supply. This is also frequently offered as the justification for acceptance for pilot training despite having scored the absolute minimum acceptable.
“They were looking for pilots, and I was honored to serve.”, Governor Bush told the Dallas Morning News. [DMN9/08/99]
“But Tom Hail, a historian for the Texas Air National Guard, said that records do not show a pilot shortage in the Guard squadron at the time. Hail, who reviewed the unit’s personnel records for a special Guard museum display on Gov. Bush’s service, said Bush’s unit had 27 pilots at the time he began applying. While that number was two short of its authorized strength, the unit had two other pilots who were in training and another awaiting a transfer. There was no apparent need to fast-track applicants, he said.” LA Times 7/4/99
From the same source and date:
"But Shoemaker, who also served as a chief of personnel in the Texas Guard from 1972 to 1980, remembers no pilot shortage. “We had so many people coming in who were super-qualified,” he said.”
It would appear, then, that GeeDubya’s claim to preference based on a scarcity of pilots is in doubt, at the very least. Has anyone offered anything to document his claim?
What does it mean to say Bush “cleared the base on May 15th 1972”? His immediate supervisor approved his application for transfer and he was allowed to leave?
OK, let us assume he packs his bags and moves to Alabama. An earlier cite (democrats.com) said his request was denied by the higher-ups on May 24th 1972. The Washington Post cite said his request was denied while he was already in Alabama. Makes sense. Now, shouldn’t he have reported back to Houston?
What was he doing in Alabama from the end of May until Sept 5 when he re-applied for a second transfer? During this time, he missed the physical and was grounded. This time period sounds more mysterious than not reporting for duty afterwards.
I think Sam Stone’s version where Bush is completely in the dark about his rejected application from May 15th until September when he re-applies is a very generous interpretation. Not that it is impossible, but sounds far-fetched.
You see it as a generous interpretation because you are predisposed to believing the worst. If I offered you the scenario above, and constrasted it with a scenario that Bush was doing drugs, dropped out, skipped his medical, finally got back in the guard again, and was honorably discharged without a mention of this on his record, which one sounds more plausible to an unbiased observer?
Or take the witnesses - The Bush-was-AWOL folks are relying on the accounts of people who didn’t know Bush ‘not remembering’ that he was on the base. On Bush’s side, he has a very solid witness in Calhoun, who states categorically that Bush was where he said he was, because he spent days sitting in the same room with him. The only way you can contradict this testimony is to assume Calhoun is lying. But if you’re going to start accusing witnesses of lying, why not accuse the ones who claim that Bush wasn’t there?
This whole thing is smelling more and more like the wacky Kennedy assassination theories that float around. Look! We have a torn document! Suspicious! We have contradictory testimonies from people who are trying to remember unremarkable days 35 years ago. An absence of documentation proving the case is itself deemed to be suspicious. Powerful people manipulated the Guard from above to help George. George was dumb, but on the other hand he was smart enough to analyze the military needs of the nation five years in advance and shewdly place himself in a unit that would just happen to not go to Vietnam. Etc.
My story meets Occam’s razor much better. Bush decided to move on with his life, and didn’t want to be a career man. So he got involved in politics, decided to go to Harvard, and wound down his commitment to the Guard. There’s nothing wrong with that. It does look like he shirked his responsibilities a bit, but hell, he was what, 25 years old? The idea of trying to pin the crime of, “This guy wasn’t diligent when he was 25” seems to me to be way overblown.
“You see it as a generous interpretation because you are predisposed to believing the worst…”
He does? By what remarkable clairovoyance do you peer into friend Litost’s mind and inventory the contents thereof? If only he were not blinded by prejudice, perhaps he could see things like an utterly unbiased and rational person does, a person like…oh, I don’t know…you?
“…Bush was doing drugs, dropped out, skipped his medical, finally got back in the guard again, and was honorably discharged without a mention of this on his record…”
Maybe. Maybe not. There’s a big fat hole in the middle of the records, records we are assured are absitively, posolutely one-hunnerd percent of everything. Once again, the most salient fact of the doughnut is its hole.
We’ve been down very similar roads, with the last ditch defense sternly manned by you and…at least one other poster. When the dust clears you proudly march out in triumph, holding aloft your banner: “Not Indictable!” Well, whatever floats your boat, guy. You’re welcome to it.
“…he was smart enough to analyze the military needs of the nation five years in advance and shewdly place himself in a unit that would just happen to not go to Vietnam…”
A firm rebuttal of a point not made, not even attempted. Did anyone claim this? Anyone? This isn’t even knocking down a strawman, this is knocking down a strawman related program activity.
I am not predisposed to believing the worst. Never in this thread have I said that I believe the drug-consuming Bush-on-AWOL theory. I am going through this with Scylla, Svin and others as rationally as possible.
How can Bush “clear the base” on May 15th 1972 when the request wasn’t yet approved by the higher-ups?
Even if (1) was possible, how come he didn’t know for over 3 months that his request was denied ? Nobody informed him, no mail, no phone calls, nothing… and he continued to be in Alabama and missed his physical.
Airman Doors has given us impartial perspectives on the issues of leaving the base without orders, reporting on date for new orders, and on missing a physical. I am going by what he has said. I have no political agenda here and please don’t impute one.
It is generally accepted fact that in February 1968, Bush scored in the 25th percentile in the Pilot Aptitude portion of the Air Force Officers test. Presumably, such a low score would not set you on the path toward becoming a fighter pilot. An exception was made for Bush. Why?
When Bush enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard in 1968, he jumped over a waiting list. Why?
In May 1968, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant. This normally required eight full semesters of college ROTC courses or eighteen months of military service or completion of Air Force officer training school. An exception was made for Bush. Why?
In April 1972, he flew his last flight in the F-102.
In May 1972, his request to transfer to Alabama was denied.
In August 1972, he was scheduled for his annual flight physical. Either he took the physical and failed, or he failed to appear before an Air Force Flight Surgeon. This should be in the “complete military record” the White House purports to have released.
August 1, 1972, he was Suspended and grounded from flying duty on verbal order of the TX 147th Group’s Commanding Officer for “his failure to accomplish annual medical examination.” Normally a Flight Inquiry Board would have investigated such a severe action. None was convened for this case. Why?
September 5, 1972, he was ordered to start serving three months in a non-flying unit in Alabama. There is no official notation in his service record that he ever reported. Why?
In November 1972, he returned to Texas. He did not report to his Texas 111th squadron the entire time. Why?
In May-June 1973, he was credited with “gratuitous” service credits, yet he did not meet the usual criteria for granting these credits. Why?
Despite appeals and offers of money, only one person has claimed to ever have seen Bush in Alabama- and the dates he claims to have seen Bush do not match the dates Bush was paid. Why? Others are more definite in that they distinctly remember watching for his arrival which never came.
Is it a mere coincidence that just as the National Guard was phasing in drug testing, Bush stopped subjecting himself to physicals?
What exactly persuaded this child of privilege to do volunteer work for an inner city organization at about this same time? Could it possibly be “community service” for some type of offense that was expunged from the records? If so, what kind of offense could this possibly have been?
If I want to believe Bush, then I have to believe that he earned his place in the Guard in spite of his miserable test score, that strings were not pulled to earn his enlistment, that he earned his commission fairly in spite of the accelarated pace of it, that he missed his flight physical for a legitimate reason which just coincidentally at the same time they began testing for drugs and just coincidentally he, for the only time in his life, does charitable work for an inner city organization, that for some incredible stroke of luck the Flight Inquiry Board did not investigate his suspension, and that he met the criteria to earn the “gratuitous points” that led to him qualifying for an honorable discharge.
Whether the war was winding down was irrelevant. It was not Lieutenant Bush’s place to decide whether the Guard needed his services, it was up to the Guard. Unless one believes a most extrarodinary string of assumptions, it is clear that Bush used his influence to bypass his test scores to get into the Guard, then used his influence to cover up legal indiscretions and drug use and finagle his way to an undeserved Honorable Discharge.
I’m with you for pretty much all of that except the “drug” use part. For instance, there are all kinds of likely reasons for skipping the flight physical, sheer laziness being at the top of my list of conjectures. He didn’t care, he didn’t have to care. But it must remain, in the absence of facts, a conjecture. It is a fact that he missed the physical, and an apparent fact that there were no significant consequences to this. This is quite enough, in my book.
As for the remarkable realization of a civic conscience, one need not go to a “drug bust”, a simple DWI is likely to have similar consequences, and much more likely, in drug crazed Draconian Texas, to result in a sentence of community service which, if completed, results in record expungement. Texans are rather tolerant of drunks, but entirely rabid when it comes to drugs.
Not saying your case ain’t solid, but why embellish it with needless conjecture, when the irrefutable facts are entirely sufficient.
Yes, we need to know when Bush’s first application was denied by the higher-ups and when Bush was notified of it. From the cites in this thread, we know he went to Alabama on May 15th 1972. He applied for the transfer to the 9921st on May 24th 1972. That right there implies he didn’t “clear the base” on May 15th 1972. But, when was this transfer denied by the higher-ups and when did Bush know of this?
Two Questions:
(1) Even if Bush was embroiled in a bureaucatic mess and was in “transient status”, shouldn’t he still take the physical?
(2) Even if Bush was in “transient status” and he didn’t hear about his transfer being denied until September when he re-applies, what on earth was he doing in Alabama for over three months? Is that allowed?
Well, as I understand it, it WAS approved by his immediate superiors. If Bush left, does that make it his screw-up, or a screw-up by his superiors, who shouldn’t have issued approval without clearing it higher up in the guard?
How do you know that he didn’t know? Maybe he found out four weeks later, re-applied to a different unit, then had to wait while the paperwork made its way through the system.
I don’t know how many people remember what paperwork was like in the pre-internet era. It was not uncommon to wait weeks for simple requests to make it through a bureaucracy. Hell, if Bush had to mail his request in, it could have taken a week or two just to make it through the mail. Three months really isn’t that long a time for paperwork to catch up with him, for him to sort out his options, re-apply, have that application make it through the system, have a response sent to him, and then have him get out to his new unit. Remember, this isn’t the regular army - Bush was a citizen soldier, who thought he was posted to an inactive squadron without reporting requirements. It might have taken the guard six weeks just to track him down after the paperwork snafu was discovered.
I think you guys are now digging really deep into the bottom of the barrel. There is now plenty of evidence that Bush WAS in Alabama, did report to the guard, did compile the ‘points’ he needed for discharge, and did properly fill out all the paperwork he needed to get an early discharge so he could go to school.
By all accounts, during his first three years in the guard he was an exemplary officer, a better than average pilot flying a dangerous plane (two of Bush’s squadron mates were killed in those planes in the three years he was actively flying). Later on, as he decided the guard wasn’t for him he worked his way out of it. That’s all there is to this story, and you guys are now trying to pin technicalities on him by trying to parse an incomplete collection of 30 year old paperwork.
BobLibDem:
Bush scored 25% on the spatial relationships part of the test, that is true. But he also scored higher than 95% of applicants on the ‘leadership’ portion of the exam. The combination of the two scores might have gotten him through. Plus, he had a degree from Yale. That probably also accounts for his 2nd Lieutenant status. Here in Canada, if you have a Bachelor’s degree you are automatically granted a commission if you apply for a technical position for which you are qualified. Did the guard have a similar policy?
In any event, even if strings were pulled to get him into the Guard, I guarantee he had to make it into the cockpit of a fighter on his own merits, because no one wants to pass the kid of a congressman up the line without justification and then explain to daddy why he turned into a smoking hole in the ground. And anyway, the evidence is that Bush was an above-average fighter pilot, so it would appear that he was qualified.
The question I asked was if Bush can clear the base without getting approval from the higher-ups. I have no idea.
We know he applied for his second transfer on Sep 5th which was approved on Sep 15th. This either implies he didn’t do anything or didn’t know about his first rejection until then OR as you said, he could have got the information by June-July… and then he applied for a second transfer which slowly worked its way through the bureaucracy and reached on Sep 5th. In which case, my question is:
what the hell was he doing in Alabama after the denial?
Probably the part of the exam where they show you sets of blocks and make you pick the next one in the series. Or show you a complex shape, and ask you to pick the object that looks like it turned 90 degrees, etc. It’s a pretty common feature of that type of aptitude test.
Sam, do you have any reference for the 95% score? I googled, but I could only find other people asserting this score, nothing that indicated anything more definitive. Do you have any reference for your assertion that the aptitude and leadership portions are averaged or combined somehow? It seems dubya-ous to me that one would want a great leader flying a plane when he is pretty darn bad at determining the angle of a plane in flight.
acusations, insinuations, and innuendo without any factual evidence to support them.
presumption of guilt with no evidence to support
avoidance of referents to standards and customs of the time supposed events occurred or did not occur.
much reliance on heresay and third party innuendo.
avoidance of basic reality, such as that of the nature of F102 flying or the fact that getting pilot status for such aircraft required several years worth of full time duty.
the use of conspiracies to promote accusations in lieu of evidence. This includes the ‘family string pulling’ conspiracies despite any evidence such occurred.
contrasts and comparisons to innapropriate situations or events.
The problems with this sort of behavior is more than a personal idiom. The fact that such behaviors are so strongly evident does not bode well for good decision making in important matters.
If I read you correctly, this would imply that Bush couldn’t simply pick up and move to another unit without substantial paperwork. Even if he moved to Alabama in May of 1972, he would still be under the command of his Houston unit, officially, until all the paperwork had been approved. Correct? Scylla:
I concur that this is entirely possible, although it seems to me to be a bit out of character for Bush. elucidator is not the only person out there who finds this sudden expression of altruism mysterious, coinciding as it does with a period during which Bush’s National Guard records become suddenly sparse and weird.
By the way, regarding the question of how Bush got into the Guard in the first place, check out this piece in The Guardian from 1999:
You wondered why Bush would thank Barnes for his testimony. The article makes it clear that Bush thanked Barnes because Barnes fingered Sid Adger, rather than Bush Sr., as the source of his request on George’s behalf, that he might skip to the front of the line at the TANG for pilot training. litost:
Here we have one of these mysterious discrepancies. According to democrats.com, Bush’s transfer request was denied on May 24, 1972. According to other sources I’ve read, the request wasn’t denied until July 31, 1972. These dates are important. If the request was denied on July 31st, then it is possible to argue that Bush didn’t show up for his July physical because he didn’t really know where he was supposed to be – Houston or Montgomery? But if the request was denied earlier, then he must have known that he was required to show up in Houston for a physical in July, regardless of his civilian commitments.
In post # 62, on page 2 of this thread, I linked to a copy of the actual order denying Bush’s request for a transfer. Unfortunately, I can’t find a legible date on the order.
By the way, thanks for your link to democrats.com. We can see here that Bush submitted his second transfer request on Sept. 5, and that it was approved on Sept. 15, just as I originally thought. If his original transfer request was denied on May 31st (which now seems likely), that would mean that it took him a full 3 months to submit a new request. During that period, he would have been still officially assigned to the 111th FIS at Ellington, but not showing up for duty – arguably AWOL?
Also, I’ve found this, from the New York Times, July, 1967:
This poor sod missed a mere seven training sessions and was called up for active duty; what’s more, he might even have had valid reasons for missing the sessions. Bush, on the other hand, skips what appears to be an entire year, and is honorably discharged? This strikes me as extremely mysterious, and definitely worth deeper investigation.
Moreover, regarding Bush’s physical:
Finally, Sam:
As usual, you misrepresent opposing argument and take the high road, insisting your view to be that of the “unbiased observer.” Yet from the very beginning of this controversy you’ve come out swinging for Bush, even before all the evidence was in. Considering your history in these discussions you can scarcely lay claim to the adjective “unbiased.”
Calhoun can hardly be considered a “very solid witness.” His testimony is at odds with the NG records, with the story as Bush has told it, and with the statements of numerous others who claim they never saw Bush, even though they were looking for him. Calhoun claims he met Bush 8 to 10 times between May and October of 1972; yet we know for a fact that Bush wasn’t even assigned to the 187th until September 15th, 1972, and was first required to report for duty on Oct. 7, 1972. So what would Bush have been doing hanging out at the 187th, in Calhoun’s office, in June of 1972, months prior to his assignment there? Unbeknownst, not only to Turnipseed, the unit’s CO, but also even Kenneth Lott, the unit’s personnel manager?
Excuse me for pointing this out, but haven’t you done precisely that? Didn’t you claim that Bill Burkett’s story was unreliable because of the his dispute with the military regarding his medical problems?
This is just outrageous bullshit, coming from you. Want a conspiracy theory? How about this one?
Turns out that the Kerry story didn’t really have “legs,” didn’t it? Yet there you were, arguing for it anyway. I remember you employing similar tactics prior to the invasion, accusing those who doubted Iraq’s possession of “WMDs” of being “unreasonable,” “irrational,” “dishonest,” and so forth. Considering how resoundingly wrong you were then, you might want to think twice before blanketing your opponents with such accusations a second time. Me, I’m beginning to suspect that you’re the perfect “reverse barometer” – the more you argue in favor a certain interpretation of events, the more likely the exact opposite of that interpretation to be true.
In response to a question from litost you write:
Again with the “making it up as we go along” schtick, Sam? Look: Bush requested a transfer to the 9921st on May 24th, 9 days after having “cleared the base.” The commanding officer of that unit approved Bush’s request two days later, on May 26th. It was rejected by higher-ups on May 31st. It took them five days to receive, process, and deny Bush’s transfer.
Bush requested a second transfer on September 5th. It was approved 10 days later on September 15th. All of these dates are documented; there appears to have been relatively little time lag with regard to this paperwork, quite the contrary.
When you write something like this, I translate it to mean that we must really be on to something.
Well, no one has accused Bush of failing to fill out the proper paperwork, so I suspect we can safely ignore that last assertion. However, I disagree that there is “plenty of evidence” that Bush reported to duty in Alabama prior to January of 1973. And at that point Bush should have been back in Houston (if I’ve understood correctly), though he’s having his teeth cleaned in Montgomery. Other than that record from January 6, 1973, we have the highly suspect testimony of Bill Calhoun, and a report from a one Lt. Le Fevre (?), who claims that someone pointed Bush out to him at some point in the fall of 1972.
Come on: the Alabama National Guard issued a 1000$ reward to anyone who could claim they saw Bush during the period in question. The only one who tried to claim the money, prior to this latest flap, was Bush’s former girlfriend.
I wonder where you get this information, and how accurate it is. Surely there’s more to an Air Force pilot exam than 5 questions on spatial relations?
Though we have cites that state that Bush was denied the transfer in late May, let us assume he didn’t know until late July, after the physical was due. What took him one long month to re-apply for a transfer to the 187th on Sept 5th and what was he doing in Alabama anyway?
I still think a 3-month gap between the rejection of his first request and his re-application looks bizarre (with his physical scheduled somewhere in the middle). The theory that it was just slow and muddled paperwork is IMHO a generous interpretation as much as Sam is willing to characterize me as biased (though I reallly have no political affiliation). I can’t say I like the “scraping at the bottom of the barrel”, “conspiracy theorist” labels though. May be some one familiar with the Guard can share their insights on paperwork, clearing the base, physicals etc.
Thanks for that link, Squink. According to this link, here are the minimim requirements for Pilot on the AFOQT exam:
Pilot Requirements:
[ul]
[li]Pilot score of 25 [/li][li]Navigator score of 10 [/li][li]Combined Pilot and Navigator score of 50 [/li][li]Verbal score of 15 [/li][li]Quantitative score of 10 [/li][li]Academic score has no minimum[/li][/ul]
Navigator Requirements
[ul]
[li]Pilot score of 10[/li][li]Navigator score of 25 [/li][li]Combined Pilot and Navigator score of 50 [/li][li]Verbal score of 15 [/li][li]Quantitative score of 10 [/li][li]Academic score has no minimum[/li][/ul]
Now, I happened to find Bush’s AFOQT score in this PDF file:
Now, doesn’t this put into perspective how misleading it is to say that Bush scored the minimum required for a pilot? He didn’t. His test results are OUTSTANDING. He could have made it into a fighter jet as a pilot or a navigator with a combined pilot/nav score of 50, and he got a combined of 75. In fact, he scored twice as well as necessary to be a navigator, which means he was good enough to pick either job. And he absolutely killed the quantitative and verbal sections, scoring much, much higher than necessary. And his OQ score was outstanding.
A little different than hearing, “Bush only got 25% on his pilot’s exam - the lowest possible score! And yet he still got in!”
As for skipping OCS, that may have been SOP for people with degrees from Yale. And speaking of that, a degree from Yale is itself a real good ticket to entry for many places, and I’m sure the Guard would have considered that as well.
Sure, I’m defending Bush. That’s a crime? As I recall, people are innocent until proven guilty. You guys have dredged up a whole bunch of 30 year old hearsay and innuendo. You need to prove your case. And there’s a lot of crap flowing around, like that “Bush scored the minimum necessary to be a pilot” stuff like I debunked above. So forgive me if I step forward to defend the man. Someone’s got to.
I can’t explain the discrepancies, but on the other hand, we have General Turnipseed vouching for Calhoun who he says has an impeccable character. Again, we’re trying to fit pieces together in a 30 year old, incomplete puzzle. It’s not surprising that there would be inconsistencies. Ask any Kennedy Assassination conspiracy buff. They’ve filled books with conclusions based on medical record screwups, conflicting testimonies of witnesses, etc. Perhaps Calhoun has his dates mixed up. Maybe Bush does. Maybe the guard does. I don’t see a slam-dunk here one way or the other.
I wasn’t ‘making it up as we go along’, because I I never stated that paper delays WERE the cause. I said they COULD be the cause. We don’t know why Bush waited for several months before reporting. I offered up an hypothesis. That appears to be incorrect. It looks like the paper trail moved fast enough once the paperwork was in the Guard’s hands.
As for the transfer - you say that Bush’s superior officer approved the transfer, and then the Guard nixed it three days later. Well… What if Bush was told his transfer was okay, and he left? Now he’s out somewhere in Alabama, out of touch with the Guard perhaps. Maybe it took them a few weeks to track him down. So maybe he gets a letter say, in the middle of June, saying, “request to transfer denied”. Panic sets in - he’s already made commitments to the Senator, rented an apartment, whatever. Perhaps the original letter said that he must re-apply to a different unit within X days or report back to Houston. I don’t know. Maybe he was just lazy, or busy and neglectful, or whatever, and the paperwork sits in his apartment for a couple of weeks while he sorts out his options. Perhaps during this time he’s been in phone contact with the Guard, asking for advice, other bases he could apply to, etc. Eventually, he gets it straightened out by the middle of September, and all is forgotten. Given that this was part-time service, and that there was really no use for his skills in Alabama, it seems the likely answer to all this is that no one really gave a shit. The Guard didn’t really need him, Bush didn’t need the guard, and all parties just eventually got the paperwork straightened out and life went on.
Maybe this sounds like a big story if you’ve got a hot little core of rage inside for George Bush. But I’ve gotta tell you, from my standpoint this sounds like an incredibly trivial thing to get worked up about.