White House Releases Bush Military Record
By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent
WASHINGTON - The White House, facing election-year questions about President Bush (news - web sites)'s military service, released pay records Tuesday that it said supported Bush's assertion that he fulfilled his duty as a member of the Air National Guard during the Vietnam War.
The material included annual retirement point summaries and pay records that the White House said showed that Bush served.
"When you serve, you are paid for that service. These documents outline the days on which he was paid. That means he served. And these documents also show he met his requirements," press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters. "And it's just really a shame that people are continuing to bring this up."
The documents indicate Bush received pay for six days of duty between May and December of 1972 when he was assigned to temporary duty in Alabama. There is a five-month stretch at the start of 1972 when he was not paid for service. The records do not indicate what duty Bush performed or where he was.
The White House has not been able to produce fellow guardsmen who could testify that Bush attended guard meetings and drills. "Obviously we would have made people available" if they had been found, McClellan said.
Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites), the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, is regularly accompanied by a "band of brothers" of military veterans who served with him in Vietnam.
Kerry said Tuesday he has said all he is going to say about Bush's record.
"I just don't have any comment on it," Kerry told reporters between campaign stops in Tennessee and Virginia. "It's not an issue that I chose to create. It's not my record that's at issue and I don't have any questions about it."
Retired Army Col. Dan Smith, a 26-year military veteran, questioned the usefulness of the latest information.
"Pay records don't mean anything except that you're in or you're out," said Smith. "It doesn't necessarily reflect what duty you've actually performed because pay records simply record your unit of assignment and then all of your pay and benefits per pay period. In terms of actually reporting for your duty, that would not be reflected on the pay notification, or pay stub."
A memo written by retired Lt. Col. Albert Lloyd Jr., at the request of the White House, said a review of Bush's records showed that he had "satisfactory years" for the period of 1972-73 and 1973-74 "which proves that he completed his military obligation in a satisfactory manner."
Lloyd was personnel director for the Texas Air National Guard from 1969 to 1995 and also had reviewed Bush's military records at the request of his campaign four years ago.
The point summaries were released during the 2000 presidential campaign but the pay records were not obtained by the White House until late Monday from the Air Reserve Personnel Center in Denver, McClellan said. He said the center, apparently acting on its own, reviewed Bush's records and came up with the pay information.
"It was our impression from the Texas Air National Guard — they stated they didn't have them," he said. "It was also our impression those records didn't exist." Bush on Sunday authorized the release of his Guard records. McClellan said the latest material apparently is all of Bush's records.
Bush's military record was raised as an issue in the 2000 campaign and was revived this year by Democratic National Committee (news - web sites) Chairman Terry McAuliffe, who called Bush "AWOL" — absent without leave — during a period of his service when he was in Alabama.
Asked if the records should end the controversy about Bush's service, McClellan said, "You have to ask those who made these outrageous accusations if they stand by them in the face of this documentation that demonstrates he served and fulfilled his duties."
Bush enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard in 1968 shortly before graduating from Yale University.
Questions have been raised about whether family connections helped him get into the Guard when there were waiting lists. Bush says no one in his family pulled strings and that he got in because others didn't want to commit to the almost two years of active duty required for fighter pilot training.
A central issue is whether he showed up for duty while assigned to Guard units in Alabama, where he worked on a political campaign in 1972. "There may be no evidence, but I did report," Bush told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday. "Otherwise, I wouldn't have been honorably discharged."
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