George W. Bush was photographed wearing a ribbon he did not earn

[Walt Starr]

We can clearly see that in this picture, George W. Bush is wearing an Air Force Outstanding Unit Award and a Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon, however, on line 24 of his ARG22 National Guard discharge form, George W. Bush has NO awards listed:



Now, here in another picture where his father is pinning lieutenant bars on his shoulder, George W. Bush is again wearing the Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon:



So, in fairness we must give George W. Bush the benefit of the doubt here. Let's dig further and look at other records released by the Bush campaign team. Our next stop is a a Form AF11 dated May 16, 1971. You will note on this document Bush has already been promoted to First Lieutenant:



All that is listed in this document is the Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon. The Air Force Outstanding Unit Award is not listed.

Our next stop is the "military biography" released by the Bush Campaign:




In this document, the claim is made that Bush was awarded the National Defense Service Medal and the Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon, BUT NO MENTION OF THE AIR FORCE OUTSTANDING UNIT AWARD!!! This document was clearly prepared after Bush's service ended.

Exhaustive searches for any indication that any unit Bush served with was awarded the AFOUA have, to date, yielded nothing. The ONLY documents released by the Bush administration related to his service that make mention of any awards whatsoever have been included in this report.

The only conclusion that can be made is George W. Bush wore a ribbon he did not earn in the above photograph.

Webliography:

USA Today source of documents used in this report: http://www.usatoday.com/news/2004-02-14-bush-docs.htm
Source for ARG22: http://www.usatoday.com/news/bushdocs/2-Discharge.pdf
Source for AF11: http://www.usatoday.com/news/bushdocs/11-4_2004_Personnel_File.pdf
Source for "military biography": http://www.usatoday.com/news/bushdocs/11-1_2004_Personnel_File.pdf