Tornado Alley (PROG)

[rico7]

zitty, I too am curious about the provenance of the Killian memos - authentic or not.

The idea that Staudt could have continued to exert influence on his former unit is not the least bit surprising, given the nature of the Guard's and especially Texas' good old boy structure. Staudt continued to retain his connections and may have been even more powerful after leaving given all the chits he probably collected by doing favors for the Bush family and other powerful individuals in Texas before he retired.

Staudt was after all closely associated with the Bush family in Texas when Georgie boy skipped the line to get admitted (despite having scored in the bottom quartile of applicants). Though he denies he helped Bush jump the line, his denials are almost certainly untrue - if it wasn't him, it was someone else who helped Georgie boy get in, covered for him while he was there, and continued to cover for him thereafter. His position as Commander means he would have known of and condoned this.

In his entire life, Georgie boy has never accomplished anything on his own. The idea this drunken drug-besotted ne'er do well whose scores placed him among the bottom rung of applicants somehow got a coveted position in the TANG at the grade of SECOND LIEUTENANT, is ludicrous.

What I am confident of is that the authenticity of the Memos cannot be dismissed based on the reasons that the so-called document experts (and various instant blog experts) have posited. If so, one would have to also conclude that Georgie's military records are also forgeries, since they exhibit some of the same typographic characteristics these so-called experts claim disprove the authenticity of the Killian memos.


See:

http://www.members.tripod.com/~pearly-abraham/htmls/GWB3.html

June 10, 2000

You Can't Just Walk Away

Vietnam had been over for a couple of years and the U.S. was at peace when I graduated from high school. When I told my parents that I was going to go into the service my mother was a little upset. My dad, however, was very supportive, but with just one warning :

"Once you sign, once you join up, you can't just walk away.
You have to follow orders."

I thought about that again recently when I first heard the news of Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush seemingly just walking away from at least a year's service in the National Guard. He had, it now appears, deserted his post -- a charge so serious I could not believe a presidential candidate could get away with it.

But a quick glance at Bush's military service tells why Bush felt he could walk away from his duty without fear of recriminations.

Bush had been treated "special" since even before he signed up for the Guard. Rumors had circulated for years that G.W. had gotten into the Guard because of his prominent father, George H. Bush. The senior Bush denied such rumors -- including a specific rumor naming his friend, Houston businessman Sid Adger, as the man who had gotten G.W. into the guard, saying he "was almost positive"(1) that he had not talked with Adger about the Guard.

One man who was even more positive that G.W. had gotten into the Guard on his own was Col. Walter B. "Buck" Staudt, the then-commander of the Texas Air National Guard. Colonel Staudt told the Los Angeles Times last July 4th that "nobody did anything for him. There was no goddamn influence on his behalf. Neither his daddy nor anybody else got him into the Guard".

That seemed to be the line that the Junior Bush's spokesmen David Beckwith took when he declared that G.W's special commission and treatment in the Guard were "routine. ... Our information is there was absolutely no special deal"

That somebody had influenced G.W's admission into the Guard became clear when his entrance test results were released. They showed he had scored the bare minimum -- 25% -- on one of the exams, yet he had been chosen over several hundred others who sought entrance to the Texas guard.

At about the same time came the crushing news that the former Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives had testified under oath that he had been contacted by Houston businessman "Sid Adger and asked to recommend George W. Bush for a pilot position with the Air National Guard" -- and that he called General James Rose and "did so.".

This testimony was brought about by a lawsuit alleging that the State of Texas had allowed a company called Gtech to keep its lucrative lottery contract in exchange for former Texas Lt.. Gov. Ben Barnes's silence about helping Mr. Bush get into the Texas Air National Guard. Not long after Barnes gave his testimony, the case was settled out of court.

So, despite all claims to the contrary, Bush had in fact received aid in getting into the Texas Guard.

Young Mr. Bush was sworn in on the very day he applied, complete with a ceremony for the press. He was then sent to basic training and given a special commission, instantly making him a second lieutenant.

That fall, while some of the heaviest fighting of the Vietnam War was raging, young Bush was allowed to take a leave of absence to go work on the Florida senatorial campaign of Edward Gurney. He also took time off from the guard in 1970 to help his dad's congressional campaign, and again from May to November 1972 when he went to Alabama to work on a Republican U.S. Senate campaign.

Bush was at that time required to attend drills with the Alabama National Guard. But there is no evidence in Guard files that he even bothered to show up. General William Turnipseed and his aide Kenneth Lott both flatly deny that Bush ever appeared for duty in Alabama.

When Bush went back to Texas after his electioneering break, he didn't bother to show up for his Guard duties. In fact, seven months rolled 'round until Bush's two superior officers at Ellington Air Force Base, Lieutenant Colonel William D. Harris Jr. and Lieutenant Colonel Jerry B. Killian, effectively declared Bush missing from duty because they could not perform his annual evaluation covering the year from May 1, 1972 to April 30, 1973.

They stated in their filing that "Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit during the period of this report."

Within days of being reported missing, Bush showed up again at the Texas Guard -- according to records showing him reporting for duty. His drinking buddy at the time, Al Lloyd, now speculates that Bush's superiors noticed and that "I'll bet someone called him up and said, George, you're in a pickle. Get your ass down here and perform some duty". Lloyd was an administrative officer with the Texas Guard until his retirement in 1995 as personnel director of the Texas Air Guard, and he is a self-professed Bush supporter.

Bush only served 36 days of duty after that and was given an honorable discharge eight months early. The early release wasn't unusual, and the honorable discharge was just what Bush had always known he would get.

After all, he had been shown privileges and granted wide-ranging leeway that included allowing him to disappear from the service for a full year, and allowing a pilot who had had expensive training to work as a campaign aide for three different legislative races.

There is an indication that someone higher up was trying to find out why Bush was missing for so long. Shortly before he was given his honorable discharge a request from National Guard headquarters was placed for Bush's annual evaluation for that year. The national headquarters was told by the administrative officer at Bush's base, "Report for this period not available for administrative reasons."

It looks like Bush got into the Guard with a cover-up and then got out with a cover-up.

In the meantime, it looks like Bush got away with the one thing my father told me: "You can't just walk away."

Sources

(1) The Dallas Morning News, 9/28/99 http://www.dallasnews.com/specials/bush_campaign/controversies/0928bush9guard.htm

(2) The Los Angeles Times, 7/4/99 http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/elect2000/pres/news/19990704/t000059916.html

(3) The Age (Australian Press), 9/30/99 http://www.theage.com.au/daily/990930/news/news28.html

(4) The Dallas Morning News, 10/30/99 http://www.dallasnews.com/specials/bush_campaign/controversies/1030bcontro1lottery.htm

(5) The Boston Globe, 5/23/99 http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/144/nation/1_year_gap_in_Bush_s_Guard_duty+.shtml

(6) US News, 11/1/99 http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/991101/lost.htm