Stripes letter: Bush's National Guard no-show is so noted on Memorial Day

[lebkuchen]

Check your facts

This is in response to the letter “Bush met guard requirements” (May 6).

The letter writer accused the editor of not checking basic facts and stated that claims of President Bush’s invisibility in the National Guard are based on the comments of one commander two echelons above Bush.

The letter writer also listed the specifics of attendance records and that guardsmen require permission of their commander to miss a drill and then must make up the time.

I respectfully ask the letter writer to check a few basic facts. Perhaps he wasn’t aware of the times in which Bush was supposed to have served. There are a number of firsthand accounts of the Vietnam era and service (or lack of service) in the National Guard.

If the letter writer doesn’t have the time or energy to read an entire book, I refer him to the Feb. 10 column by Richard Cohen in the Washington Post.

Cohen said he was in the National Guard during this era, and he admits he was a “deserter” during his time in the National Guard.

He avoided reporting to duty for two years and, like Bush, he got paid for meetings he didn’t even attend. Also, like Bush, he received an honorable discharge.

And as to Bush’s “service” here are some “facts”:

• Between May 1972 and April 1973, there are no flight logs or attendance sheets to verify Bush’s service. Bush does not appear in unit photographs. He is not listed on the unit roster.

• Bush was paid for the first weekend of May in 1973. Yet two officers signed a report that same weekend stating that Bush had not been observed with his unit during that period.

• Bush was not present to sign his discharge papers.

• A number of people in Bush’s unit were told to look out for him, but he never showed up.

Angela Cerrito
Aviano, Italy

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=22532

[Narraback]

1. Kick

nt