Guard, Reserves Have History of Spotty Record-Keeping

[LiberalFighter]

Gaps Such as Those in Bush Documents Are Common; Most Files Contain Omissions, Official Says (This is part of the headline in Washington Post 15 Feb 2004)

The controversy over President Bush's time in the Air National Guard has exposed one not-so-secret aspect of the Guard's record-keeping: It has been full of gaps and inaccuracies for years.

Contrary to the military's general image of orderliness and discipline, the process of documenting the service of Guard members and reservists has long suffered from disorder and incompleteness, according to people both inside and outside the Pentagon familiar with the records system.

(snip)

Further, the accuracy of some of the submitted information has come into question because of commanders' efforts over the years to exaggerate membership figures. In these cases, Guard members who have stopped going to monthly drills have nonetheless remained on unit rosters to ensure no reduction in federal funding for the units.

An investigation in 2001 by USA Today found that the percentage of such "ghost soldiers" ran as high as 20 percent in some units. A subsequent report by the congressional General Accounting Office confirmed that Guard officers had inflated troop levels in some instances and filed false reports, which then became the basis for funding requests to Congress.
(snip)

Would explain bush* being a ghost soldier.

[Bunny]

1. Still doesn't explain why NO ONE has come forward to say

they remember serving with him. No one who is credible, that is.

[renegade000]

10. i think someone has...although

i believe there is a large contigency that has come forward (not necessarily in the mass media...but in other smaller more local papers) to say they can't really attest to his being there...which speaks a lot concerning the matter

[pfitz59]

2. Its the Natl Guard's fault!

I see......! darn part-timers!

[Media_Lies_Daily]

3. Yeah, right. How come nobody's come forward,...

...besides those that have been easily debunked, that could verify that he was serving in the guard during the time period in question?

Answer: Because Little Lord NeoCon really was AWOL, and AWOL by considerably more than 30 days after which they declare you a deserter.

[UpInArms]

4. wouldn't it be that much easier

for him to say his service was substantiated?

I don't think that this reflects that he "served" more faithfully - but perhaps less, as they would not want to show him as "absent".

[Dr Fate]

5. Again, the "Party of Personal Responsibility" passes the buck...

Blame Clinton, blame the CIA, blame the fine folks at the Nat. Guard...

Does the "Not Me" ghost from Family Circus live in the WH???

[0007]

6. Just like the other third world counties?????

It appears that technology is going backward, 'eh?


How spotty are these figures?

[Judi Lynn]

11. Thanks for the informative chart, 0007. Very helpful for perspective. n/t

[Redleg]

7. The story indicates that errors tended to be overcounts rather

than undercounts. Commanders kept people on the rolls to keep the "manpower" numbers up. If anything, this doesn't seem to help Bush's case at all.

[mbperrin]

9. Right! The fact that he shows present AT ALL is more likely to be an

error, according to this!

[Maccagirl]

12. Ding Ding Ding

We have a winner! This story doesn't help *'s cred at all.

[nwohiodemocrat]

8. Did the National Guard lose *'s Drivers License too?

Seriously, you don't need a degree from MIT realize that statistically it is impossible for so much documentation to be missing just by chance.