In Haze of Guard Records, a Bit of Clarity
nytimes.com
On Friday, White House officials disputed speculation that he skipped the physical because the Air Guard introduced drug testing in 1972.
"For years now, Republican and Democratic officials have urged voters to consider George W. Bush's military record as if through opposite ends of a telescope.
The Bush team has emphasized the long focus, stressing only the most basic outlines of his service: that he signed up for the Texas Air National Guard in 1968, became a pilot and then was discharged without incident in 1973.
Democrats, meanwhile, have encouraged the microscopic view, suggesting that scandal lurked in the nitty-gritty details of how Mr. Bush won a coveted Guard slot at the height of the Vietnam War and then managed an early exit to attend Harvard's business school. They aggressively fanned skepticism about gaps in the president's service records, including the particulars of why he lost flight privileges some two years before his discharge date.
Until this month, the Republican defense of Mr. Bush's military record, sticking to the bare essentials, had successfully neutralized a succession of newspaper articles that raised questions about Mr. Bush's service. But now, with Iraq casualties mounting, with angry Democrats coalescing behind a decorated Vietnam veteran and with credibility questions dogging Mr. Bush, the broad-brush defense has been abandoned.
Still, even through the fog of political combat it is possible from an examination of Mr. Bush's military records to get a firm fix on several important points along the path of his National Guard service. It is also possible to identify the areas that remain in dispute and the questions that have yet to be fully answered.
In his autobiography, "A Charge to Keep," Mr. Bush wrote about the dilemma he and fellow classmates at Yale faced as they approached graduation in the spring of 1968.
"We discussed Vietnam, but we were more concerned with the decision each of us had to make: military service or not. I knew I would serve. Leaving the country to avoid the draft was not an option for me; I was too conservative and too traditional. My inclination was to support the government and the war until proven wrong, and that only came later, as I realized we could not explain the mission, had no exit strategy, and did not seem to be fighting to win."
Despite his inclination to support the war and his professed desire to serve as a fighter pilot, there is no disputing that he avoided signing up with the Air Force. Instead, two weeks before graduation, he opted to seek a slot in the 147th Fighter Group, a Texas Air National Guard unit whose main mission was to defend the Gulf Coast. What is in dispute, though, is whether Mr. Bush was accepted ahead of a waiting list of 500 other applicants.
In his autobiography, Mr. Bush wrote that he heard from "contemporaries" that there were pilot jobs available in the Texas Air National Guard and so he called to inquire. "There were several openings, I was told, because many people who wanted to go into the Guard were unwilling to spend the almost two years of full-time duty required for pilot training," he wrote. And according to "First Son: George W. Bush and the Bush Family Dynasty," a biography of Mr. Bush by Bill Minutaglio, historians in the Texas Guard determined that there were 26 officer slots open in the 147th Fighter Group at the time Mr. Bush enlisted, including five open slots for pilots.
Also in dispute is whether the Bush family used any of its influence to get Mr. Bush into the Guard. The 147th Fighter Group, based at Ellington Air Base in Houston, was nicknamed the Champagne Unit because it had so many sons of Texas privilege, including Lloyd Bentsen III, son of a future United States senator, and John Connally III, son of the former Texas governor.
At the time he applied, Mr. Bush's father represented Houston in Congress. In 1970, just two months after the elder Mr. Bush announced he was running for the United States Senate in Texas, the Texas National Guard sent the Houston newspapers a glowing news release announcing that the candidate's 23-year-old son had completed his first solo mission.
Ben Barnes, then the speaker of the Texas House, said in 1999 that Sidney Adger, a Houston businessman and longtime friend of the Bush family whose son also won a slot in the 147th, had asked him to help get Mr. Bush into the Guard. Mr. Barnes, who acknowledged a role only after he was questioned under oath, also said that he had spoken to the head of the Texas Air National Guard on Mr. Bush's behalf, but had no contact with anyone in the Bush family.
And there is no direct evidence that Mr. Bush's family pulled strings to get him into the 147th. Mr. Bush is firmly on record denying it, as is the commander of the unit, and there is no paper trail showing any influence by the Bush family.
On the question of whether he was ever AWOL, that charge appears to be exaggerated based on the balance of evidence available to date.
Mr. Bush's payroll records do indeed show that he missed Guard training during eight months between May 1972 and May 1973. For much of that time, Mr. Bush was immersed in the United States Senate campaign of Winton Blount. It was a brutal, hard-fought campaign waged all across Alabama. One issue was how tough to be on draft dodgers.
But records also show that Mr. Bush took several steps to fulfill his Guard obligation, including completing enough extra training after the campaign ended to fulfill at least the minimum annual requirements for retirement purposes.
Several retired officers in the Alabama National Guard said in interviews that part-time Guard members in 1972 typically faced formal discipline for unexcused absences only if they made no effort to stay in touch with their commanders over a prolonged period. But Mr. Bush's military records show that he twice sought permission during the summer and fall of 1972 to train with two different units of the Alabama National Guard. He was denied permission to train with the first unit but was accepted in the second unit, the 187th Tactical Reconnaissance Group at Dannelly Air National Guard Base in Montgomery.
In interviews with The New York Times this week, 16 out of the hundreds of former officers, pilots and senior enlisted members of the 187th said they could not recall Mr. Bush's serving at Dannelly. But the White House arranged for interviews with one member of the 187th, a retired lieutenant colonel, John B. Calhoun, who told reporters he recalled seeing Mr. Bush at the base reading flight manuals and pilot safety magazines. "I saw him at each drill period," Mr. Calhoun said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
"He was very aggressive about doing his duty there," Mr. Calhoun added. "He showed up on time and he left at the end of the day."
The White House also released medical records showing that Mr. Bush had his teeth examined at Dannelly on Jan. 6, 1973.
Still, one major remaining question is why Mr. Bush, who said he wanted to make flying "a lifetime pursuit" when he joined up, failed to take a required annual flight physical in 1972. As a result, records show, he was suspended from flying on Aug. 1, 1972, an action that some Guard officials have said should have set off an inquiry. No records of any such inquiry have been released.
On Friday, White House officials disputed speculation that he skipped the physical because the Air Guard introduced drug testing in 1972. Dan Bartlett, the president's communication director, said that Mr. Bush did not take the exam because there was no need; the 187th Tactical Reconnaissance Group in Alabama, he said, did not fly the F-102, the fighter jet Mr. Bush was trained to fly in Texas.
But several retired airmen from the 187th said in interviews this week that Mr. Bush could easily have been checked out to fly in the Phantom II, the two-seat reconnaissance jet in use at Dannelly in 1972.
Another question is precisely how Mr. Bush obtained an honorable discharge from the Guard on Oct. 1, 1973, eight months before his six-year commitment ended.
Mr. Bush's military records should have contained paperwork explaining why he was allowed to leave the Guard early for Harvard, said David McGinnis, a retired brigadier general in the National Guard who was principal director of strategic plans and analysis in the office of the Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs from 1993 to 1997. |
