I'll tell you what for those out there who think Bush tried to avoid Vietnam...... Surprise, surprise!!... Air National guard units from Texas WERE involved in Vietnam. It says so right on their friggin' homepage:
agd.state.tx.us
And RIGHT NOW, the majority of flight hours being racked up over Iraq are by Air Guard pilots who have FAR MORE experience than their hot-dog Air Force comrades.
Remember, the Air Guard is made up of those who have left active service, taken regular jobs (usually as airline pilots), but still want to feel a supersonic crotch rocket under their backsides.
But let's face some facts here... Bush was a pilot, and that allow requires just a bit more intelligence, courage, and motivation than banging a typewriter as a military journalist.
And Bush spent a YEAR ON ACTIVE DUTY LEARNING TO FLY F-102s, which few others were willing to do.
cnn.com
"However, the Dallas Morning News, which also looked into Bush's military record, reported that while Bush's unit in Texas had a waiting list for many spots, he was accepted because he was one of a handful of applicants willing and qualified to spend more than a year in active training flying F-102 jets.
Bush joined Guard to follow father's footsteps
Bush, a Yale University graduate, has said he joined the Air National Guard rather than volunteer for Army combat duty because he wanted to learn how to fly jet fighters like his father, who was a fighter pilot in World War II.
"He said he wanted to fly just like his daddy," Bush's commander, Col. Walter B. "Buck" Staudt, told the Times. "Nobody did anything for him. There was no ... influence on his behalf."
The Times reported that many of Bush's former colleagues and superiors in the Guard remember him as a bright young leader who worked hard.
"He did the work. His daddy didn't do it for him," said retired Maj. Willie J. Hooper." |
