Los Angeles Times: An Agile Pilot Who Flew Under the Radar

[question everything]

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/2004/la-na-bushguard27sep27,1,2606706.story?coll=la-home-headlines

An Agile Pilot Who Flew Under the Radar
After a promising start in a coveted Guard slot, George W. Bush nearly dropped out of sight.
By James Rainey, Stephen Braun and Ralph Vartabedian
Times Staff Writers

September 27, 2004

(snip)

Over the next 18 months of his tour, the man who is now America's commander in chief paid little attention to his military duties, lost his flying status and was granted an early exit from the assignment that shielded him from combat in Vietnam A reexamination of Texas Air National Guard documents, Air Force regulations and accounts from former Guard officials and military experts depicts a capable young pilot who initially excelled, then barely scraped together enough credits in his final two years to meet the Guard's minimum requirements.

(snip)

In 1972, he failed to take an annual flight physical that was standard among this fellow pilots. As a result, his commanders grounded him. By 1973, his superiors were forced to file a near-blank evaluation, conceding they had neither seen him in a year nor received any reports from his new overseers in Alabama... "If he wanted to get out of Vietnam, fine. But he had a minimal responsibility to meet his contract, and he broke it. Now he wants our military Guard people in Iraq to make the ultimate sacrifice and accept extended tours," said Gerald A. Lechliter, a retired Army colonel who opposes Bush's Iraq war policy.

(snip)

When he signed up in 1968, Bush wrote in his "statement of intent" that flying would be "a lifetime pursuit." An admiring 1970 Guard press release about the young flier quoted a thrilled Bush saying that "flying, the whole thing, is kicks." At the time, the cost of training a National Guard pilot was more than $1 million. In addition to their standard six-year service commitment, Guard pilots typically agreed to fly for five years upon completion of their flight training. That standard contract has yet to surface among Bush's files.

(snip)

By the time his 1972 evaluation was filed on May 26, Bush had already left Houston for Montgomery, Ala., where he had a job waiting in the Senate campaign of Winton "Red" Blount, a onetime U.S. postmaster general and a friend of his father's. But according to Bush's file, he didn't show up for training for six months — between May 15, when he was last seen by his Texas commanders, and late October, when he was credited with two days of training. Bush missed drills on at least 24 weekends over that period. Guard rules specified no more than four weekend meeting absences a year. But Bush's Texas records contain no explanation for the missing months.

(snip)

[fearnobush]

1. Kick

"If he wanted to get out of Vietnam, fine. But he had a minimal responsibility to meet his contract, and he broke it. Now he wants our military Guard people in Iraq to make the ultimate sacrifice and accept extended tours," said Gerald A. Lechliter, a retired Army colonel who opposes Bush's Iraq war policy.

[huckleberry]

2. Great article - confirms the CONTENT of 60 minutes story!

Thanks for posting.

[mhr]

3. From Earlier Post Last Week - Bush Became Afraid To Fly

eom

[progressivebydesign]

17. I don't believe that.. here's why..

Somewhere is an account of Bush taking someone's private plane up, after the ANG years... he was a shitty pilot and made the person fear for their life. Perhaps it's in Kitty Kelly's book? Someone posted it here last week.. Bush is not afraid to fly, he was doing drugs and couldn't take the physicals.. A person with a fear of flying a plane would not offer to fly someone's private plane... and I doubt they'd even travel by plane at all, themselves. Don't buy into the non-drug answer to his missing flight duties.

[fob]

18. "A person with a fear of flying a plane would not offer to fly someone's

private plane..."

That is probably true, BUT, An egotistical asshole who always UNDERacheived and made up for it by NEVER admitting fault for anything or even having any faults, WOULD take someone else's private plane EVEN if they were afraid to fly, and upon the way of shitty flying and practically crashing the damn thing, this same asshole would get out and go "THERE! HOW'S THAT FER FLYING!" right in the same scared-shitless owner's face, and walk away SATISFIED he had proven his manhood once again.

Count on it.

[Jane Austin]

19. As I recall it, it was in Midland, TX, and he took

Don Evans up in a private plane. I don't remember whose plane it was.

I do remember reading that he scared Evans to death and that he buzzed some buildings.

[starroute]

20. Here's the 1976 Cessna story

http://www.seanet.com/~johnco/bush102.htm

It's near the bottom the the page.

[dArKeR]

4. I still have no facts that say aWol ever flew solo!

I'm sleepy and just glanced at this one. Why don't the TV reporters clearly lay this all out for the American people?

Does a million dollars include the cost of the service crew needed to maintain the jet?

I was a student pilot and I know your Pilots Log Book is a thing of pride and something you look at and show others. Where is aWol's private log book?

Do Swift Boat's have log books? If show, Kerry should bring his out in the debate and ask where aWol's is!

[NNN0LHI]

5. Don't be surprised if Kerry brings up the log book thingy at the debates

n/t

[question everything]

11. He should not. Except for us, here, most voters do not care about

what happened 30 years ago. On this point, he is a "Teflon president."

Kerry should concentrate on this war and, of course, on this year's issues.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

12. Suddenly the flight log is being mentioned everywhere

they must be working that forgery up now.

[0007]

6. Does anyone know what those ribbons are that junior is wearing?

Is this a license to do what-ever?

[NNN0LHI]

7. Quickest beer run maybe? n/t

[saigon68]

15. Air Force Small Arms Expert Marksmanship ribbon

Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon

[TrogL]

16. How good of a qualification is this?

I got "marksman" with the Canadian Armed Forces and found out a month later I needed glasses. True, I did a really good job of aiming for the centre of the blur.

[AP]

8. He did show up to get his taxpayer-funded dental care.

This guy is just a living embodiment of the hypocrisy of Republicans.

I can't believe he is president. That is so wrong.

[KoKo]

9. Didn't a Judge order rest of Chimp's TANG papers to be released last

week. Wasn't it supposed to be by last Thursday? Anyone remember that?

Where are they? :eyes: I haven't heard a word, but maybe I missed it, or did the "media" conveniently forget?

[TexasBushwhacker]

14. You can't release what's been destroyed

From my post here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=2410324&mesg_id=2415068

This is from an article that Greg Palast wrote LAST YEAR:

"But what the heck, Bush’s supporters respond that the man did at least he ‘serve his country’ in the Air Guard. Or did he? Questions have been raised over the years about whether the younger George, having nailed the cushy pilot seat, failed to report for duty. On camera, I spoke with Texas cattle rancher Bill Burkett, formerly a Lieutenant Colonel in the air guard. Seems that Burkett was in the office of the Guard’s Adjutant General when a call came in from then-Governor George W. Bush’s office. As is normal procedure, the call was put on the speaker box, but the request was not so normal. The Governor’s office was sending over an official biographer … and the Governor’s minions wanted to make sure the files did not contain not-so-heroic info. Burkett told me:

“I was in the General’s office, General Daniel James …. He gets a telephone call from Joe Albaugh, who was the Governor’s chief of staff, and Dan Bartlett … on the voice box … and they wanted General James to assemble all of the Governor’s files, that was going to write a book…. But Joe told General James, ‘Make sure there’s not anything in there that’ll embarrass the Governor.’”

And there wouldn’t be. Burkett asked if the general’s staff really intended to purge the files; and sure enough, as evidence of the affirmative reply, he was shown the piles of pay and pension records in the garbage pails destined for the shredders. Colonel Burkett did not run off with those files so we can only conclude this: the only evidence that Bush showed up for duty during the war is now missing. Military pay records are public records – and now they are conveniently unavailable."

It just so happens that Adjutant General Daniel James of the TANG was promoted to the DIRECTOR of the Air National Guard in June 2002 and promoted to Lt. General. Here's his bio:

http://www.af.mil/bios/bio.asp?bioID=5929

His father was the late Daniel "Chappie" James, Jr., one of the original Tuskegee Airmen, and the first African-American 4 Star General. It seems his father was an honorable man. Someone needs to put some pressure on Lt. General James to do the right thing and tell the truth.

[EST]

10. Bush's logs were released, recently

As I recall, he had 336.7? hours and I think a little over 500 hours total time, which, presumably, included his training in Georgia.
As a pilot, myself, I am aware that, for at least the first five hundred hours or so, one's log book is a matter of pride. After that it becomes routine, and quite often, in civilian life, log entries can become pretty hit-or-miss. Bush definitely lost interest in staying in the guard as the VN war was winding down, and there was apparently something else ruining his flying ability, causing him to need dual instruction and simulator time at the end of his career. The refusal to take a medical was not the only thing causing his removal from flight status. Simulator time is no sin, and a lot of pilots take simulator rides just to stay sharp.

The final indignity is that, with such a cloud on his record, if he were anyone else, Bush would not even be able to get a security clearance, let alone become president, without a thorough investigation by the intelligence agencies. Of course, having a daddy running the CIA had to be of some advantage.

Lets face it, organized crime, in one fashion or other, has been running this country since at least the late sixties, ever since R F Kennedy was assassinated. Given that Kennedy was a hell-on-wheels attorney general with a bad hard-on for organized crime, eyebrows at least half mast are definitly the order of the day.

[realFedUp]

13. Some slick headline editing.....

Republican copy editors anyone?

[Supersedeas]

21. records contain no explanation for the missing months--sound of crickets

from the TV press who claim they have vetted his service records.

Odd?