In 1972, Bush needed to leave Texas, possibly (some Texans say) because he was getting into so much trouble there. He asked permission to transfer to an Alabama unit, so he could work on the political campaign of "Red" Blount. But he left for Alabama before that permission was granted. He finally received permission to transfer five months after the fact, but we know Col. Turnipseed did not remember Bush reporting for duty.
Glynn Wilson wrote an extensive article on Bush's "lost year" in Alabama in 1972 in the Feb. 2, 2004, "Southerner Daily News." http://www.southerner.net/blog/awolbush.html
We know Bush was grounded from flying for the last three years of his service, and that after May of 1971, he never took another physical examination while in the Guard.
He received an honorable discharge, and that proves, he says, that he did his duty.
But even though she did not believe the actual documents were authentic, she did believe the information contained within them was correct.
Bush's entire life had been and continues to be about never having to face consequences. Because of who his Daddy is, and because of the broadcast media, which has been his chief enabler throughout his political career, the consequences that would be meted out to poor, less well-connected men were somehow never applied to G.W. He even became president after losing a presidential election because the contested state was the one in which his brother served as governor, and its secretary of state was his Florida campaign manager. We know his brother and Ms. Harris removed the names of tens of thousands of legal black voters from the Florida voter rolls prior to the election to ensure fewer votes would be cast by black people, 90% of whom vote for Democrats.
Such chicanery is standard operating procedure in Bush's life, and always has been.
If Wilson's article is correct, Bush actually bragged about the cops picking him up for drunk driving "all the time" in New Haven when he was a student at Yale, but letting him go when they found out who he was. He has always known - his life itself is the proof -- that the rules that apply to others do not apply to him.
Besides, an honorable discharge is not automatic proof of service or character. The Washington D.C. sniper, a Gulf War veteran, received an honorable discharge in spite of two summary courts-martial.
However, as a BuzzFlash.com reader observed in "Supreme Irony" May 24, 2002, the most salient fact regarding George Bush's military service is that Bush was a fighter pilot for the Texas Air National Guard, and by all accounts, for a time at least (he, reportedly, later had problems, especially with landings, and was put back on a trainer plane - "Fear of Flying," the Nation Sept. 29, 2004) a good one. As such he undoubtedly flew mock intercepts. Therefore the "supreme and sad irony" is that he is the one president, who in the summer of 2001-- when the increased "chatter" about terrorist attacks had George Tenet's "hair on fire" and Richard Clark frantic with concern - was uniquely qualified to have known what precautionary actions to take; Especially after he received numerous presidential daily briefings warning that something was up, including the PDB on August 6th titled "Bin Ladin determined to strike in US"
An engaged president, even one who hadn't served in the air national guard, after receiving the August 6th briefing, at the very least would have put the air national guard on high alert and ordered fighter jets up 24/7. But, Bush did nothing.
So, Bush actually went AWOL twice. Once when he failed to perform his duties in the Air National Guard for-- even the White House cannot deny -- at least several months, and the infinitely more important 2nd time when despite the increased "chatter" in the summer of 2001 and numerous warnings from our own and foreign government officials, he did not interrupt his month long vacation in Texas to put the ANG on "high alert" or to take any other steps that might have prevented the tragedy of 9/11.
[from awolbush]
Decide for yourself. At awolbush copies of Bush's military documents, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act can be viewed.
· Suspended from flying August 1972...
· Annual Officer Effectiveness Report, 5/2/73: "Not Observed" from May 1, 1972 to April 30, 1973...
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