Question: When did they start testing pilots for drugs...

[Mich Otter]

in the military?
Was the test that Bush skipped the first one that he would have taken that included drug testing?

[evlbstrd]

1. I had to take them as early as 1975.

But I wasn't a pilot, just a sailor.

[catnhatnh]

2. Yeah...

...that's approximately the time...after they saw the results from us peons (or offs,or into jars) they got scared and started testing upward...the results did not please them...

[DemoTex]

3. Spring of 1972.

I had just gotten off active duty when the mandatory testing started. This is when Bu$h went AWOL. Ironically, I went to Lt. Col. William Turnipseed in Montgomery for a position in that RF-4C unit in September 1972. Turnipseed said that they would hire me to fly their Convair 220 until a RF-4 training slot opened up. He said that that might be a while because they were expecting a TDY officer from TANG who was not yet F-4 qualified. That officer was obviously George Bu$h. He never showed, and I passed on the deal. Small fucking world.

[Mich Otter]

4. Thanks

I have been looking for any documentation that is available which explains just when drug testing started. Do you know if any such documentation exists on-line?
I graduated high school and turned 18 in 1972. I went for the Armed Forces Entrance Exam, figuring I would try to get into the Air Force if it looked like I would be drafted. My family has done service but we are not really any sort of "military family". I didn't get drafted, didn't sign up and went ahead and got a job.
While I understood the Viet Nam war was wrong and a pack of lies, I appreciate more and more every year the sacrifice so many have made for this country. Thanks for being there.