Note: This is a working draft for comment and is part of The AWOL Project, a series of online articles examining the military records of George W. Bush from the perspective of the Federal statutes, Department of Defense (DoD) regulations, and Air Force policies and procedures concerning that military service. (Before linking to anything on this site, please read glcq.com )
Please direct your comments, correction, and suggestions to awol@glcq.com.
UNFIT FOR SERVICE—
THE MYSTERY OF “PTI 961” SOLVED
New information with regard to the meaning of a special code which appears on George W. Bush’s Air National Guard discharge papers indicates that he was being thrown out of the Air National Guard for failing “to possess the required military qualifications for his grade or specialty, or does not meet the mental, moral, professional or physical standards of the Air Force.” In other words, despite the fact that Bush had an unfulfilled six year Military Service Obligation, he was discharged from the Air National Guard not because he moved to Boston, but because he failed to meet his obligation to maintain his qualifications as an F102 pilot.
The special code is “PTI 961”, and is found[1] in the “Reason and Authority for Discharge” section of Bush’s NGB-22, his “Report of Separation and Record of Service in the Air National Guard of Texas and as a Reserve of the Air Force.”
From Bush’s NGB-22
No actual “reason for discharge” is cited in this section. However, the reference to “ANGR 36-05 [PTI 961]” provides us with enough information to determine that Bush was being thrown off for failure to fulfill his requirements.
“PTI” stands for “Personnel Transaction Identifier”, a code which “identifies the controlled personnel management action being accomplished the personnel data system.”[2] And although the particular meaning of “PTI 961” remains unknown, all “900” series PTIs mean that someone is no longer considered part of “Air Force strength.”[3]
From AFM 30-3 (1977)
AFM 30-3 explains how “transactions” involving the “movement of a member within the Air Force strength which does not affect the total strength, that is, movement….to a different command” would have been “reported by PTI 201.” Bush’s discharge and reassignment appears to have been a “movement to a different command” (i.e. from the Air National Guard to the Air Force Reserves).
However, when an “action is reported by the 9xx PTIs” it represents a “loss to the Air Force strength.” In other words, despite the fact that Bush had almost eight months left on his six year Military Service Obligation at the time, Texas Air National Guard officers were signaling that Bush was essentially worthless to the Air Force, and should not even be retained in the “Ready Reserves” for call up in the event of a national emergency.
From Bush’s 1/30/74 Points Summary
This interpretation is fully consistent with the fact that Bush was placed in an “Inactive Status” retroactively, effective September 15, 1973. “Inactive Status” meant that Bush was no longer eligible to accrue time served toward “gratuitous” membership points.
From AFM 35-3, Chapter 19, Para 2
In fact, under Air Force regulations, someone like Bush, who had an outstanding Military Service Obligation, could only be placed in an “Inactive Status” if he was being “completely severed from military status.”
This “complete severance” was an extraordinary event. Under ordinary circumstances, an obligor would be retained in an active status upon being discharged from the Air National Guard and reassigned to the Air Reserve Personnel Center in Denver Colorado. ARPC had two special “paper units” designed specifically for those with unfulfilled Military Service Obligations:
1) the Obligated Reserve Section, aka ARPC(ORS) which contained obligors who continued to be Ready Reservists and thus liable for mobilization upon order of the President, or
2) the Non-Affiliated Reserve Section which was dedicated to obligors, aka ARPC(NARS-B), which was an “active status” section of the Standby Reserves who members were not subject to mobilization on a Presidential order for various reasons (such as hardship, or holding critical civilian jobs.)
The fact that Bush was discharged from the Texas Air National Guard under a Personnel Transaction Identifier used to denote a reduction in total Air Force strength means Bush was considered not merely “useless” under present circumstances, but of no possible use to the Air Force at any point in the future. PTI 961 meant that Bush was unfit for service in the United States Armed Forces, and that there was no point in keeping him around in case of a national emergency.
This can be established through examining the relevant regulations. ANGR 36-05, which was the “authority” cited in Bush’s discharge papers, has a limited number of “separation criteria” that are consistent with a “900 series” Personnel Transaction Identifier, all of which could only be the result of Bush being thrown out because he wasn’t doing his job. (see Appendix 2). The most likely of these criteria is that Bush was discharged for “standby screening”, and an examination of the rules under which discharges could be accomplished (see Appendix 3) in this fashion lead to only one conclusion---that Bush was thrown out of the Air National Guard because he was “unfit to serve.”
Appendix 1: Occurrences of “PTI 961” in the Bush documents
In addition to the occurrence of “PTI 961” on Bush’s NGB-22 (cited above), three other documents in the Bush files contain the code.
The first occurrence of “PTI 961” is found on the “indorsement” of Bush’s discharge request by the commander of the 147th Fighter Interceptor Group, Col Bobby Hodges[4], dated September 18, 1973. As with the NGB-22, no reason is specified for the transfer. It appears that that information from this indorsement (including an erroneous zip code for Harvard Business School) was the source of the information used in the NGB-22.
(The second chronological occurrence was on the NGB-22, dated October 1, 1973. Insofar as the written orders discharging Bush (see below) were not promulgated until October 16,and this date is noted on the form itself, it can be concluded that this form was backdated.)
The third occurrence of “PTI 961” is on the written orders (signed on behalf of the Governor of Texas) discharging Bush from TXANG dated October 16, 1973.
E961 02731001L9CMPY48 900297
The final occurrence of the code is from the fourth quarter 1973 payroll data, in which the number “961” appears. A Julian date (“297” found at the far right of the data line) indicates that the data was processed on October 24, the same date on which Bush lost his Federal Recognition as an officer of the Air National Guard. The date of Bush’s discharge from TXANG (“731001” which is October 1, 1973 in the YYMMDD date format used in the payroll records) is also included in this line of data.
Appendix 2: ANGR 36-05 “Separation of Air National Guard Officers”
Air National Guard Regulation (ANGR) 36-05 was the “authority” cited for Bush’s discharge in the documents that include the “PTI 961” code. It should be noted that this regulation specifies that an officer who “possesses a service Obligation will be assigned to the Ineligible Reserve Section” of ARPC[5] and that the “discharge of an officer…for reasons which would render his retention as a Reserve of the Air Force undesirable will normally be processed under” a different regulation.
The best explanation for the procedures that were followed in Bush’s discharge can thus be found in AFM 35-3, Chapter 12, which deals with “Standby Screening” (see Appendix 3).
There are 14 separate criteria listed in ANGR 36-05, paragraph 6a under which an officer could be discharged from the Air National Guard and transferred to the Air Force Reserves. Many of these criteria (numbers 1, 5,6,7,8, and 9) would not have (necessarily) resulted in a “loss of strength” to the Air Force, and thus would not have resulted in a “900 series” Personnel Transaction Identifier. Others do not appear to be specifically[6] applicable to Bush’s situation (2,3,4,10,11, and 13). Unfortunately, the regulations mentioned in 6a(14) are not available at this time, and thus it is impossible to determine if Bush fell under this criteria. Thus it appears (also see footnote 4) that Bush’s discharge was based on the “screening criteria” found in “ANGR 35-03”---and it should be assumed that these criteria were the same as the relevant criteria regaring the Air National Guard which can be found in AFM 35-3 (see Appendix 3).
There is one other possible “criteria”, which fell under the provisions wherein a Guardsman would be discharged both from the Air National Guard and as a “Reserve of the Air Force”. (Other regulations appear to provide for “retention” of an obligated officer who met this criteria.) This was paragraph 6b(5), which concerned “resignation in lieu of efficiency board action.” Among the purposes of such an “efficiency board” was consideration of revocation of Federal recognition of an Air National Guard Officer (see 32 USC 323(b)) Insofar as the Air Force had taken notice of Bush’s “Officer Effectiveness/Training Report” wherein Bush’s commanding officers had noted that Bush had “not been observed” for an entire year, and that Bush’s commanding officers had failed to respond to a demand for more information by August 6, 1973, it is certainly possible that Bush “had been selected to be considered by an efficiency board” and that his discharge was a result of that “selection.” However, there is no specific documentary evidence that this “selection” took place, and Bush’s “resignation letter” in not in the specific format required for such a discharge.
Appendix 3: AFM 35-3, Chapter 12—“Screening the Ready Reserve”
The Air Reserve Forces Personnel Manual (AFM 35-3) was a compendium of the various rules and procedures governing members of the Air Reserve Forces which was comprised of the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserves . Chapter 12 of AFM 35-3 is entitled “Screening the Ready Reserve”, and it is this chapter which may provide the key to the procedures that were followed when Bush was discharged from the Texas Air National Guard.[7]
The Air Reserve Forces was comprised of the Ready Reserves (those who could be mobilized by President order) and the Standby Reserves (those who could not be mobilized by a Presidential order because of hardship, a critical civilian occupation, lack of “qualifications”, or other reasons.) Ready Reservists were supposed to be “screened” periodically to make sure that they could be mobilized in the event of a national emergency, and whenever a Ready Reservist was thought to be ineligible for mobilization, he would be discharged from his unit, and assigned to the Air Reserve Personnel Center (ARPC), which would review his files and make a final determination.
There were 12 basic criteria or “rules” for discharging someone to ARPC for “Standby Screening” which are found in Tabl
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