New White House Documents Indicate Bush AWOL For 6 Months In 1972: WP
White House claims newly-released documents prove Bush actively served paid days between May 27, 1972, and May 26, 1973, but do not account for 6 month gap in 1972, nor identifies the nature of the work on the days served, according to the Washington Post. Retired Lt. Col. previously used by Bush campaign claims records prove Bush contention.
"The records indicate that between May 1972 and May 1973, Bush served 14 days -- two days in October, four days in November, six days in January and two days in April. The White House offered no indication of why there was a gap in Bush's service from April to October, 1972.
"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."
--Wash. Post, 02.10.04
"I joined the National Guard, did my six months of active duty (basic training, etc.) and then returned to my home unit, where I eventually dropped from sight. In the end, just like President Bush, I got an honorable discharge. But unlike President Bush, I have just told the truth about my service. He hasn't....
there are no records to show that Bush reported for duty during the summer and fall of 1972. Nonetheless, Bush insists he was where he was supposed to be -- "Otherwise I wouldn't have been honorably discharged," Bush told Tim Russert. Please, sir, don't make me laugh....
I was supposed to attend weekly drills and summer camp, but I found them inconvenient. I "moved" to California and then "moved" back to New York, establishing a confusing paper trail that led, really, nowhere. For two years or so, I played a perfectly legal form of hooky. To show you what a mess the Guard was at the time, I even got paid for all the meetings I missed....
When Bush attempts to drape the flag of today's Guard over the one he was in so long ago, when he warns his critics to remember that "there are a lot of really fine people who have served in the National Guard and who are serving in the National Guard today in Iraq," then he is doing now what he was doing then: hiding behind the ones who were really doing the fighting. It's about time he grew up." --Richard Cohen, Washington Post, 02.10.04
"The records released today -- some of them smudged and hard to read -- showed that Mr. Bush was not paid for National Guard service from December 1972 to February or March 1973, a time in which Mr. Bush lost his active-flight status.
"Where was he in December of '72, February and March of '73?" a questioner persisted. "Why didn't he fulfill the medical requirement to remain on active flight duty status in 1972?"
Schedules varied in National Guard and Reserve units in that era. A typical schedule called for two evening meetings of four hours each, plus one all-day meeting, often on a Sunday, each month. In addition, a unit attended a two-week summer camp at an active military post. A unit member who missed more than a few meetings in a year faced the prospect of being called to active duty." --New York Times, 02.10.04
Here are two documents McClellan may have been describing today, including a discussion of them by "Calpundit." --Politex, 02.10.04
QUESTION: The records that you handed out today and other records that exist indicate that the president did not perform any Guard duty during the months of December 1972, February or March of 1973. I'm wondering if you could tell us where he was during that period. And also how is it that he managed to not make the medical requirements to remain on active flight duty status?
MCCLELLAN: The records that you're pointing to, these records are the payroll records. They're the point summaries. These records verify that he met the requirements necessary to fulfill his duties. These records, these payroll records reflect...
QUESTION: That wasn't my question. Where was he in December of '72...
MCCLELLAN: These records...
QUESTION: ... February and March of '73? Why did he not fulfill the medical requirements to remain on active flight duty status?
MCCLELLAN: These records I'm holding here clearly document the president fulfilling his duties in the National Guard. The president was proud of his service. The president...
QUESTION: I asked a simple question. How about a simple answer?
MCCLELLAN: John, if you'll let me address the question, I'm coming to your answer.
QUESTION: Well, if you would address it, maybe you could.
MCCLELLAN: I'm sorry, John, this is an important issue that some chose to raise in the context of an election year. And the facts are important for people to know. If you don't want to know the facts, that's fine. But I want to share the facts with you.
QUESTION: I'll ask one more time: Where was he in December of '72, February and March of '73. Why didn't he fulfill the medical requirements to remain on active flight duty status in 1972? [The question was never answered. --Politex.] transcript
"Under questioning from increasingly vexed reporters, it becomes clear the White House's pay stubs and other papers aren't terribly convincing proof of anything -- except that these lame scraps of evidence demonstrate a three-month gap -- a period in which now apparently even the White House tacitly admits Guardsman Bush was absent without leave, off working on a Senator's campaign in another state. (Remember, even 31 days of AWOL meets the army's internal administrative standard for " desertion "). The White House also does not dispute that Guardsmen Bush lost his flying status -- status he earned at American expense -- by failing to submit to an army medical examination. And it offers no explanation for why a hard-partying mediocrity like George W. Bush circa 1972 might have been afraid to show up for that." --The Nation, 02.10.04