Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal (2004)

No, no. Because the F-102 was going to be phased out in mid-1974, it was quite alright for Bush to decide not to take his physical in mid-1972 and lose his flight status.

"Payroll records," hunh.

Synchronistically enough, Richard Cohen columnized on all that jazz in the Washington Post just this morning...

"During the Vietnam War, I was what filmmaker Michael Moore would call a "deserter." Along with President Bush and countless other young men, I joined the National Guard...

...I was not rich. I was, though, lucky enough to get into a National Guard unit in the nick of time, about a day before I was drafted. I did my basic and advanced training (combat engineer) and returned to my unit. 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..."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27178-2004Feb9.html

"No, no. Because the F-102 was going to be phased out in mid-1974, it was quite alright for Bush to decide not to take his physical in mid-1972 and lose his flight status."

Oh, please. The government spends over a million dollars training him, and he just decides to refuse to take a physical and stop flying (after they started drug testing) AND doesn't get sent into combat? PLEASE!

THAT is "fulfilling his obligation?"

Isn't this kinda like William H Macey's character trying to fudge car serial numbers in "Fargo" by making them illegible?

"I smoked but did not inhale" now becomes "I was paid but did not serve". McClellan touts out pay stubs as if they are proof he was on the job? No one has ever been paid without being on the job? Maybe I'm a cynic but I want a credible eyewitness that saw him show up for duty.

I'm inclined to give GWB a pass on this-- unless they try to smear Kerry's war record.

A word of note:

Even though the F-102 was being phased out, the F-104 was in the process of being moved into guard units.

It had a more powerful engine, different air intakes, and (I assume) better radar, but it flew almost identically to the F-102.

A decent F-102 pilot could have transitioned in less then 10 hours.

Okay, I've seen this:

-------------------------------

White House Releases Bush Military Record

By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=2&u=/ap/20040210/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_military_records

"...A memo written by retired Lt. Col. Albert Lloyd Jr, at the request of the White House, said a review of Bush's records showed that he had "satisfactory years" for the period of 1972-73 and 1973-74 "which proves that he completed his military obligation in a satisfactory manner."

Lloyd was personnel director for the Texas Air National Guard from 1969 to 1995 and also had reviewed Bush's military records at the request of his campaign four years ago.

Asked why the White House had not publicly brought forward any comrades who had served during the period with Bush, McClellan said, "Obviously we would have made people available," then pointed to Lloyd's statement.

The point summaries were released during the 2000 presidential campaign but the pay records were not obtained by the White House until late Monday from the Air Reserve Personnel Center in Denver, Colo., McClellan said. He said the center, apparently acting on its own, reviewed Bush's records and came up with the pay information.

"It was our impression from the Texas Air National Guard — they stated they didn't have them," he said. "It was also our impression those records didn't exist." Bush on Sunday authorized the release of his Guard records. McClellan said the latest material apparently is all of Bush's records.

The pay information documented the dates when Bush showed up for Guard duty, the spokesman said. "You are paid for the dates you served," McClellan added...."

-------------------------------

And I just have one question: Where's the rest of it?

And by the way, was his record "seasonally adjusted"?

In Tony-Soprano terminology, wasn't Bush being paid for a "sit-down"? Maybe he worked this out with the government.

If this is the best the White House can do, I'm wondering whether its own supporters aren't going to start mumuring about the lack of records and questioning Bush's credibility. This situation is becoming dreadfully zombified ("steadily decaying, but will not die") as far as the White House might be concerned. The fact that they haven't just said, "Screw it. Redact the Social Security Numbers from everything, everywhere, and dump it on the press," suggests that there's something that will really, really embarrass Bush out there. Something utterly at odds with his previous statements or that his base will find disturbing.

Popcorn, anyone?

My guess is that the Bushies have given the press everything they have, and that finding more stuff is hard.

This information does nothing for me. There are a lot of government employees out there that get paid and don't show up for work. Speaking of which, maybe I should get back to work...

When Brad and others ask Bush to release his military records, they mean that he should send a release to the national personnel records center. To help out they suggest a format for the release.

http://www.archives.gov/facilities/mo/st_louis/military_personnel_records/sample_authorization.html

"Military Personnel Records - Sample Authorization

The following is suggested as an example of an acceptable authorization:

"I authorize the National Personnel Records Center, or other custodian of my military service record, to release to (your name or that of your company and/or organization) the following information and/or copies of documents from my military service record."

Complete the authorization by specifying the information and/or document(s) requested. Be sure to sign and date the authorization. Authorizations are honored for one year from the date of signature."

To be even more helpful, I propose

I authorize the National Personnel Records Center, or other custodian of my military service record, to release to anyone who asks al copies of any and all documents from my military service record

Signed W

If you want to help the president, you can send your suggestion to president@whitehouse.gov

I got this from Mark Kleiman

Thanks, Robert - I'll look at Mark's site.

Where's his DD-214?
Where's his DD-214?
Where's his DD-214?
Where's his DD-214?
Where's his DD-214?
Where's his DD-214?
Where's his DD-214?

Qu'est que c'est un DD-214?

Y'know, I'm perfectly content to continue to examine the question of whether Shrub was derelict, deficient, duplicitous, etc in his duties. Fine. Let's get the records, interview others from the cohort, and dig to the bottom.
About time. Dunno why Al Gore, brilliant politician that he was, didn't think of this four years ago.

But isn't it time to abandon the criminal accusation that the man was AWOL?

Cohen is suggesting that Guardsmen are capable of "a perfectly legal game of hooky". And that such "service" requires neither wealth, good political connections, nor (particularly) terrible morals. So. Shrub is as lazy and cowardly a person as Richard Cohen. Or Dan
Quayle, I suppose. Is that the substance of
the accusation?

Does anybody actually think "AWOL" correctly describes such a crime?

The DD-214 is a summary of all time served, I believe. It also will indicate what level of honorable discharge you recieve. There are a few levels, including "you discharged, don't try to come back, just cuz we couldn't court-martial you, doesn't mean we want you back."

Also, "in Tony Soprano terms" was Bush's service a no-show or a featherbed job.

This obsessive fixation with George Bush and his service in the National Guard is not healthy.

The F-102 and F-104 are completely different airplanes. The former manufactured by Convair, the latter by Lockheed. I don't think any ANG units had F-104s as they mostly were deployed overseas for NATO countries.

The F-102B later was transformed into the F-106, but it was a much faster airplane than the F102A. Almost twice as fast. However only about 300 were ever built, the last in 1960. I doubt that by 1972 there was any replacement of F102s with F-106s. It was the F-4 Phantom that was the most common replacement. Followed by the F-15 starting about 1972.

Even though the F-102 was being phased out, the F-104 was in the process of being moved into guard units.

In Bush's unit, the F-102 was replaced with the F-101 in 1974.

Again, this was a year or so after Bush left the Guard, and two or so after he defied an order to take a flight physical.

Isn't the interesting question what he WAS doing, rather than what he wasn't doing? Perhaps he was in a rehab hospital.

DD-214 has military assignments - that is, where you were and who the CO was.

The fact that nobody at all remembers seeing Bush in Alabama remains very fishy. Likewise not taking the physical and being grounded. They could have found some witnesses by now. (But maybe people who knew him in Alabama "know too much", IE, know what he was doing at that time).

"Obsessive fixation", etc., etc. -- this issue has been hpping for all of three days. A lot of the interest comes from actual uncertainty about what really happened.

In the context of actual American politics this is a legitimate and significant issue. And comparisons to the Clinton inquisition are unjustified and often self-serving (some think that civility should have been returned to public life on exactly Jan. 20, 2001.

This is sort of a wedge issue for us -- somethingwe don't care much about, but which a big part of Bush's constituency cares tremendously about. That's the way the game is played.

Pouncer: this is what Clinton dealt with for 10 years. The death of 1000 paper cuts. Loathsome isn't it, when the shoe is on the other foot?

Pouncer, I might add that I can see why you enjoyed seeing Clinton bleeding....I certainly am enjoying this, as an Viet Nam era volunteer who feels an atual stake in the matter.

I see several of these documents are those "ARF" forms, one of which was discussed on this site a couple of days ago. Someone said "ARF" was a disciplinary assignment. BTW, I happen to know that down here in Texas, avoiding the draft took connections...some of the draft boards made no secret of letting well connected kids off with various deferments.

What WAS he doing? Fellow blogger Cal directed me to (the late) J.H.Hatfield's Fortunate Son, a very readable account of GWB's life. Not very flattering, but if the account is even remotely accurate, there must be many people that know intimately what Dubya was doing.
I cannot reccommend the book enough,which the original publishers (St Martin's Press) dumped bowing to political pressure. What he was doing in that AWOL period ( cocaine, alcohol) is trivial compared to the broader picture that Hatfield paints.

"Pouncer, I might add that I can see why you enjoyed seeing Clinton bleeding...."

y'know, I didn't particularly. The biggest disappointment about Clinton is that his very few, very high profile prevarications, undercut his accurate analysis and recommendations.

For instance, Clinton wanted to regime change in Iraq. But anytime he tried to adduce evidence as to why, he was accused of "wagging the dog", and lying about Saddam's attempts to acquire WMD.

Bush can make the EXACT SAME claim and the same prescription, and even his bitterest enemies don't charge he's "wagging the dog".

New charges, sure. "All about the oil." Well, maybe it is and maybe not. I don't know. I see where Saddam was paying off lots of big time oil executives with Total/Fina/Elf in France and Canada. No reason some of that money couldn't slop over onto Exxon/Mobil in Dallas, Texas, too. Oil, like cash, is pretty fungible. And maybe one could draw a pattern from ANWR to Kyoto to Iraq. "Oil oil oil oil oil oil..." It's certainly possible.

But where does the AWOL piece fit into that pattern?

A little foolishness, enough to enjoy life and a little wisdom to avoid the errors, that will do

There's nothing to gain and nothing to lose.

Anyone can learn from pain.

Truth is a kind and gentle lie.

Seekers of truth invariably turn to lies.