LAT: What Did Bush* Do in the War?

[kskiska]

(snip)

George W. Bush graduated from Yale University in 1968, soon to become eligible for the draft. Mindful of his father's World War II exploits as a bomber pilot, he showed up at the Texas Air National Guard office announcing he wanted to fly jets "just like daddy."

(snip)

But Tom Hail, a historian for the Texas Air National Guard, said that records do not show a pilot shortage in the Guard squadron at the time. Hail, who reviewed the unit's personnel records for a special Guard museum display on Gov. Bush's service, said Bush's unit had 27 pilots at the time he began applying.

While that number was two short of its authorized strength, the unit had two other pilots who were in training and another awaiting a transfer into the unit. There was no apparent need to fast-track applicants, he said.

(snip)

The Texas Guard capitalized on the Bush name, especially as the elder Bush rose from congressman to ambassador to the United Nations to head of the Republican National Committee while son George served in the Guard. Periodically, Guard officials put out press releases drumming up attention to the young man who "gets high all right," but not on drugs; from flying.

The young Bush, 21 when he joined the Guard, had other pursuits too.

He drove a convertible sports car and braved the bachelor life in cramped, often disheveled rooms in one of Houston's tonier singles' apartment complexes. He also drank (a habit he did not completely forgo until he reached 40) and dated. And like his father, he had an early passion for politics.

more…
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-guard15feb15,1,1551268.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[grasswire]

1. agh!!

In another story today, it's claimed that lots of openings for pilots existed!

Get it straight, someone!

[Media_Lies_Daily]

2. Junior and Lloyd Bemtson's son jumped over 500 other applicants...

...to get into this unit.

[Octafish]

4. Lloyd's kid and the BFEE loved the Savings & Loan scene, too.

I've had a problem with Texas oil men since 22 November 1963. Here's something of more recent vintage, from "The Mafia, CIA and George Bush" that indicates the Savings & Loan fiasco was bipartisan corruption that involved Lloyd Bentsen and his son (Bush's TANG buddy) most thoroughly:


EXCERPT...

This information enables one to view the 1988 elections, in which not one cross word was ever spoken about the savings-and-loan debacle, in a whole new perspective. It was not merely a fortuitous coincidence that both Bush, the Republican nominee for President, and Bentsen, the Democratic nominee for Vice President, were part of, and beholden to, the same group of Houston businessmen. Even if the Democrats lost that presidential election, as they did, Bentsen could still win re-election to his Senate seat under the so-called "LBJ rule." The Houston boys, as usual, had their bets covered.

(If the Democrats had won in 1988, this book would be entitled "The Mafia, the CIA and Lloyd Bentsen," for Bentsen and Bush are two interchangeable peas in a pod. They have many friends, business associates and campaign donors in common. The story of the most important one they share begins this book.)

But Bush won in 1988, and one of the reasons he did was his ability to keep the S&L scandal out of the political debate. He was assisted in this by none other than Bentsen, as we shall see. They both had much to hid, Bush in particular. Not only were many of the President-to-be's friends involved -- along with two of his sons -- but Bush himself, as Vice President, had personally intervened in the federal regulation of a dirty Florida savings and loan that was being looted by people with connections to the Mafia and the CIA. This S&L ultimately failed, costing taxpayers nearly $700 million.

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

The S&L scandal is the vehicle for telling the story about these leading American politicians and businessmen. But the relationships between these individuals and how they control and manipulate public and private institutions is the bigger story. Unless we know who these people are and understand how they operate, we can all look forward to more S&L-type debacles to come.

CONTINUED...

http://www.thetip.org/art_The_Mafia__CIA_and_George_Bush_146_icle.html

[buckeye1]

3. If you don't want register...

try this.

http://bugmenot.com I am.

[0007]

5. No thank you, Sir

[kskiska]

6. According to Hatfield and others

Junior was an absolute pig and even his friends regarded his apartment as a toxic waste dump. There were plates of half-eaten food, clothes all over the floor – absolutely filthy. They say the clothes he wore were cast-offs from others, and he wore no socks.

[LiberalFighter]

7. Winning promotions?

(snip)
The White House and Bush loyalists, as well as many of his fellow guardsmen, say he served with distinction. They say he gave nearly six years of his young life to combat readiness — winning promotions and keeping himself prepared for call-up duty in Vietnam, if needed.
(snip)

Winning promotions??

Lets see he became a 2nd Lieutenant under questionable reasons. He didn't have eight full semesters of college ROTC courses. He didn't have eighteen months of military service. He didn't complete Air Force officer training school. Yet, those are the normal requirements to be commissioned 2nd Lieutenant.

He is nominated for promotion to 1st Lieutenant on Election Day 3 Nov 1970. It just happens that his daddy George H W Bush is running for Senator that same year.

He is NOT nominated for promotion to Captain as would normally be done with such an outstanding young man as the commanding officers had made him out to be. WHY?

Winning promotions?? Was it WINNING promotions? It was more like groveling on the part of the commanding officers. And was it winning PROMOTIONS? Geesh 2 promotions is just one past getting one promotion.

[kskiska]

8. Don't tell me the Guard wasn't thrilled to death

having Poppy show up for photo-ops, pinning medals on Junior. I'm sure that had no correlation to Junior's rise in the ranks.

[UpInArms]

9. here's some other interesting information

regarding where the records are kept:

http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/foi/

DoD Personnel Service Records are maintained at the NARA's National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri.

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

NARA's National Personnel Records Center

Welcome to the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) web site. NPRC is one of the National Archives and Records Administration's largest operations. We are a central repository of personnel-related records, both military and civil service. Our mission is to provide world class service to Government agencies, military veterans, former civilian Federal employees, family members, as well as researchers and historians. Please follow the appropriate links to find more information about our records and available services. Thank you!

and then I found this very intersting article:

http://www.kmov.com/sharedcontent/nationworld/washingtonprint/011004ccktnatpentagon.1c69c39.html

Report: Pentagon auditors altered documents By LARRY MARGASAK/Associated Press WASHINGTON — Pentagon auditors spent 1,139 hours altering their own files in order to pass an internal review, say investigators who found that the accounting sleuths engaged in just the kind of wasteful activity they are supposed to expose.

When the auditors in the New York City office learned well in advance which files a review team would check, they spent the equivalent of more than 47 days doctoring the papers and updating records from several audits, the Defense Department's inspector general concluded. Administrative staff, audit supervisors and other employees also participated in the scheme.

The fabrication at the Defense Contract Audit Agency "certainly violates the spirit and intent" of government auditing standards and rules on ethical conduct, according to the inspector general's report obtained by The Associated Press.

...more...