These records, listing dates served, should be available on line by this evening.
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Bush Authorizes Release of Military Records
By Lois Romano and Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, February 10, 2004; 1:15 PM
President Bush has authorized the release of records showing he was paid for serving in the Texas Air National Guard during a year when his presence at drills has not been publicly documented, the White House announced today.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said the records "show that he was paid for his service, and you get paid for the days on which you serve."
"It showed that he fulfilled his duties," McClellan said. "There are some that have made outrageous accusations, and I think you need to ask those individuals if they want to continue to stand by those outrageous accusations in the face of documentation that clearly demonstrates the president fulfilled his duties."
Defense Department officials said yesterday that they had requested Bush's payroll records from his service in the National Guard be sent to Washington from a DOD archive in Colorado.
Bush, in an interview shown Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," said he would release all his records, including pay stubs, to put to rest political suggestions that he may not have fulfilled his duty near the end of his Guard service, from May 1972 to May 1973. The president also suggested there might not be anything in the records that has not already been in the public domain.
"I mean, people have been looking for these files for a long period of time, trust me, and starting in the 1994 campaign for [Texas] governor," Bush said. "And I can assure you in the year 2000 people were looking for those files as well."
Asked in the interview whether he would authorize release of his Guard records, the president said, "Yes, absolutely."
At his briefing today, McClellan, who rarely rebukes reporters, said firmly when a television correspondent continued asking about questions the records do not answer: "The president fulfilled his duties. And if you put want to question other people who fulfill their duties, that's your prerogative. I won't."
McClellan was asked whether he would commit to making other relevant records available. "This is what we know that is available that exists," he said.
Administration officials have sought to portray the controversy as old news that was aired during Bush's first campaign for Texas governor and "it was a shame that this was brought up in 1994," McClellan said. "It was as shame that it was brought up in 2000. And it is a shame that it was brought up again."
McClellan said White House communications director Dan Bartlett received the information last night.
Bush enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard in 1968, two weeks before graduating from Yale and at the height of the Vietnam War.
At issue is a 12-month period, commencing in May 1972, when Bush moved to Alabama to work on a senatorial campaign. He received permission to transfer to an Alabama unit and was instructed to report to duty there. There is no definitive evidence in his file that he reported to the Alabama unit to perform drills; Bush has said he did report and perform drills.
Bush's personnel records also are vague on what he did in the Texas Guard after returning to Houston after the Senate election he worked on. The first date in the records for 1973 is May 29, when they indicate he attended drills. The records show he attended drills at least 18 times between May 29 and July 30.
In his annual evaluation, covering the period of May 1972 to April 1973, Lt. Col. William D. Harris wrote that he could not evaluate Bush because "he has not been observed" in Houston. Bush left the Guard in October 1973 to attend Harvard Business School.
Bush's service record was explored by the Democrats and the media in 2000 but received new attention recently, when Democratic National Committee Chairman Terence R. McAuliffe called Bush "AWOL" -- absent without leave -- during his time in Alabama.
According to military experts familiar with National Guard records, there are two documents that could indicate whether Bush reported for drills during that year. One is an annual summary of his points, the quantitative measure of his service. The summary includes each date he reported for a drill and how many points he received toward his annual requirement.
His official personnel record, obtained by The Post in 2000, does not include a summary of service for the time in Alabama. There is a sheet, where the name has been torn off, that includes dates for that period, but there is no way to confirm it refers to Bush because his Social Security number has been redacted. Also, no one who served in Bush's Alabama unit at that time has come forward, despite years of publicity on the subject. The brigadier general Bush was to report to in Alabama has said he has no recollection of Bush's doing so.
The other documents that should still be available are Bush's payroll records, which would show what drills Bush was compensated for during that period. Officials said yesterday that the DOD in Washington would review the master copy of Bush's payroll records, which have been stored on microfiche for 30 years at the Defense Finance and Accounting Service in Denver.
Staff writer Dana Milbank and researcher Lucy Shackelford contributed to this report.
washingtonpost.com
Bush's military pay details shown
From correspondents in Washington
11feb04
THE White House, facing election-year questions about President George W Bush's military service, is releasing pay records and other information intended to support his assertion that he fulfilled his duty as a member of the Air National Guard during the Vietnam war.
The material, to be released today, was to include pay records and annual retirement point summaries to show that Bush served.
``These records clearly document that the president fulfilled his duty,'' White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.
The point summaries were released during the 2000 presidential campaign but the pay records were not obtained by the White House until late yesterday from the Air Reserve Personnel Centre in Denver, Colorado, McClellan said.
He said the centre, 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 authorised the release of his guard records. Bush said the latest material apparently is all of Bush's records.
McClellan said the pay information documented the dates when Bush showed up for guard duty.
``You are paid for the dates you served,'' he said.
Bush's military record was raised as an issue in the 2000 campaign and was revived this year by Democratic National Committee 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 for what was seen as an easy billet.
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.
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