AIR FORCE TRIED TO DISCHARGE BUSH (for being AWOL)

[rawstory]

Latest from the bunker.

By John Byrne | RAW STORY Editor

New research confirmed by RAW STORY and verified with federal law and military regulations, indicates that in late 1973 or early 1974, the United States Air Force attempted to discharge then-Lieutenant George W. Bush.

Effective September 15, 1973, four years into Bush’s six-year duty requirement, the Air Force placed Bush on inactive status. This document, in Bush’s military record, was dated January 30, 1974, suggesting that it was backdated.



As he was signed up to fulfill a military service requirement, the only reason the military would have placed him on inactive status was if they intended “complete severance of military status.”

http://rawstory.com

In order for him to be placed on inactive status, then, the military would have planned to discharge him – and not honorably.

[LittleApple81]

1. I want this out on the "mainstream" press. YOU HAVE DONE AN EXCELLENT,

SUPERB job, RawStory, but we have to SHOW THIS TO THE "UNENLIGHTENED" (dumb) public....
I saw another post where it seemed that this could get widespread dissemination. Any truth to that? It would be great! Thanks for all your work, by the way.

[rawstory]

3. It's slow going...

Yeah. The paper still seems to be investigating, but they need to do their own independent analysis, assemble people to go on the record, and are probably having just a hard time getting people to say flat-out that Bush was AWOL as we are.

I think it's a matter of time now. I didn't realize this whole Air Force thing until I started exploring the deserter thread (which there's evidence of too, but a bit harder to explain). But this is more than proof, this is proof the Air Force knew -- and then he magically got back INTO the guard in a new position (which he never did anything as).

[iconoclastic cat]

7. Good stuff!

It's all going to come together.

So, are you still ticked? I hope not. BTW: When will the discussion board at RS be back up?

[mzmolly]

49. Send this to the Kerry campaign, and or Chris Lehane.

They'll find a way to get it out there, just in time for the election.

:evilgrin:

Thanks for the great work!

[NewYorkerfromMass]

2. Kewl. and full caps headline for this is O.K. by me.

Awesome!

[wurzel]

4. How can this get into the media?

Who's "new research" are you talking about?

[UdoKier]

5. He was not in the Air Force.

It was the Air National Guard.

[trumad]

13. LOL

This guys been investigating this for over a year and you chime in trying to correct him... That's funny...

[UdoKier]

18. Not trying to be funny.

Perfectly legit stories get sunk in the media by such details.

Many people now think that F-911 "lied" about the Saudi/Bin Laden flights because the impression left by the film was that the flights left the US DURING the flight ban, which was not true.

What the "debunkers" always fail to mention is that the Saudis and Bin Ladens indeed WERE flying around the US during the flight ban, assembling for their overseas flight, which didn't take place until the flight ban was lifted.

I don't find it funny at all when one of our bombs is defused by rightwing nitpickers because we gave them a window by not paying attention to detail. THEY pay attention to EVERY detail, especially when it comes to language.

[rawstory]

23. Air National Guard under Air Force jurisdiction

Yeah. Air Force policy supercedes and is conjunctive with the air national guard. nuf' said. but i'll add as much in the article, thanks for noticing...

[Media_Lies_Daily]

38. Whoa!!....

FratBoy was a member of the Texas Air National Guard.

Just as Army National Guard units are part of the overall U. S. Army organization, Air National Guard units are part of the overall Air Force organization.

[althecat]

6. Yip.. a great scoop... why do you think this has been missed so far?

[rawstory]

22. because inactive status doesn't read as AWOL to a reporter

and because you can be asked to be placed on inactive status -- but NOT as an officer with a military service obligation.

[Jack from Charlotte]

26. Here's a few AP articles about reservists called up to active duty for

being AWOL. I've got the year these were published somewhere. Around 1970, I think.

[leesa]

45. It's a dang good thing Bush got his war on...now he can enlist and

complete his tour of service with honor! Wouldn't that be a GREAT sentance for his crimes against our nation and the world?
How long ya think he'd last dropped in the middle of Iraq?

[dubyaD40web]

8. Kick

Good work dude. I got you on my site.

[blm]

9. Spread this info around to other forums.

Get the BUZZ going.

[Pallas180]

10. BWAAAAAAA haha. about time somebody found the real docs.

:bounce:

[Pallas180]

11. Now get a general to confirm it meant dishonorable coming.

.

[bobbieinok]

12. check out the AWOL thread in salon's tabletalk in the WH (M Heldt's)

Paul Lukasisak (?) is the new guy who's gone after this like a pit bull. (The same researcher who did such a fabulous job on the vote steal in FL2000......of whom of course very few have ever heard.)

[grasswire]

14. be sure to use the correct Air National Guard...

..instead of "Air Force" because the dark side will use any glitch to discredit what you have to say.

[rawstory]

31. Nope. It was the Air Force that would have made him inactive

They supervise the Air National Guard.

[K-W]

15. bump

[Rosco T.]

16. Link gone? Story gone? n/m

[Walt Starr]

17. Try this

http://www.bluelemur.com/index.php?p=177

[buycitgo]

19. time out for

soldiers?

[rawstory]

30. I'm putting this in my blog

it's sheer genius.

thanks!

[buycitgo]

20. a brief time out for.........

soldiers?

[buycitgo]

21. snafubar on computer

won't let me edit

[jdj]

44. It's a good thing.

the site must really be hoppin, because it keeps telling me my posts don't post when they do, plus I'm getting that bug with a number message.

[renegade000]

24. ummm wasn't he in the air national guard?

[rawstory]

25. See comment above; Air Guard is under Air Force jurisdiction

nuf' said. but that should have been more clear from the get-go -- my apologies.

[renegade000]

27. ah thanks!

[TahitiNut]

28. Didn't he get into Harvard B-School in 1973?

That would coincide with the start of the school year. He 'graduated' in 1975. Two years (73-74, 74-75) is typical.

[rawstory]

29. Yes, he did. But he wouldn't be placed on inactive duty.

Good thinking. And I plan to flesh this out in the article tomorrow.

Inactive duty for military obligors is ONLY if you're going to be discharged -- altogether. At this point Bush was still in his fourth year of a six-year obligation. Plus bush suddenly became active AGAIN in 1974 -- so that rules out that option.

What was supposed to happened when Bush went to Harvard was that he should have found another place to serve. He left the Texas Air National Guard in October 1973 and was expected to find another unit to serve with.

he didn't. They assigned him then to the 'default' -- the Air Reserve Personnel Center (in Colorado). Once that happened, he was given 60 days to find a unit to serve with (presumably in Massachusetts). He didn't.

That's when they started the procedure to expel him (in dec or jan of 74) -- and then they backdated it.

[rawstory]

33. Here's what I added

Others note that he starting attending Harvard Business School in the fall of 1973. But he wouldn't have been placed on inactive duty for this -- he'd simply have been transferred into another unit. He formally left the Texas Guard in October 1973, but never found another unit.

He had 60 days from the date he received his Texas Guard discharge, postmarked October 16, 1973. At the end of this period the wheels would have started turning at the Air Force.

[merh]

36. Have you reviewed this site?

http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/3671

He has alot of links. Then there is this article.

============================================
The Birmingham News
Bush remembered from social contacts
Saturday, February 28, 2004
BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE
News staff writer

George W. Bush didn't make much of an impression as a Guardsman in Alabama, but plenty of people recall him socially from 1972, with memories fond and foul.

Bush is remembered by those who say they worked with him, socialized with him, even those who say he still owes them money.

Winston Groom, the "Forrest Gump" author, remembers a pleasant dinner with Bush in the summer of 1972. Lobbyist Fred Crawford recalls talking baseball, lots of baseball, with Bush. Birmingham native Murphy Archibald, now a lawyer in Charlotte, recounts how Bush often bragged about his drinking.

None have specific recollections about Bush and the National Guard. Some heard he was serving but never saw for themselves. All of them remember his time with Winton "Red" Blount's unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign.

(snip)

For much of 1972, the 26-year-old Bush lived, worked and played in Alabama, mostly in Montgomery. He came to town to work for Blount at the urging of his father and with the help of a family friend, GOP political consultant Jimmy Allison of Midland, Texas. And he lived in a two-bedroom, one-bath cottage in Montgomery's historic Cloverdale neighborhood, the furnished home of a 68-year-old widow.

That's what the Smith family remembers most about Bush, how he left their aunt's home damaged, dirty and dumpy.

"He was just a rich kid who had no respect for other people's possessions," said Mary Smith, whose family found damaged walls, broken furnishings and a chandelier destroyed after Bush left the house. A bill sent to collect the damages went unpaid, the family said.

(Snip)

Bush arrived in the third week of May 1972 as an outsider to a campaign that already had been running for five months, since Blount had won the Republican primary on May 2. Bush came in cocky and that turned some people off, McLennan said.

(snip)

Archibald, a Blount relative by marriage, said he believes Bush's social side interfered with his job. He said he remembers many times when Bush would come to the Montgomery office late and leave early. He'd tell stories about his drinking the night before, like a frat boy bragging to his brothers. "I just found it strange that a guy in his mid-20s would feel comfortable enough to talk about that," Archibald said.

Several weeks after Archibald went to work for Blount as a volunteer in September 1972, Allison told him the campaign was having trouble getting materials out to the counties. Allison told Archibald to take over the job, one that Archibald said Bush wasn't doing. That's where Bush got the nickname "the Texas Souffle," Archibald said, from some of the volunteers who thought he looked good on the outside but didn't have much inside.

Samuel Blount, the candidate's son who also worked with Bush, said he doesn't remember such behavior from the future president. He points out that Archibald, his cousin, is "very, very liberal."

http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1077963426278660.xml

http://www.al.com/news/independent/index.ssf?/base/columnists/1077146101315230.xml

http://www.southerner.net/blog/awolbush.html

[blm]

39. Have you tried to gather all the service data on James Bath?

Since he and Bush did everything together, including both being grounded for the same reason at the same time, I wonder why no press has nailed down his record throughout that same period. In fact, Bath was even Bush's go-between when he sold his shares of Harken to Salem Bin Laden.

It would really be something if somehow his data turns up missing, too, wouldn't it?

[0007]

32. Thank you for the update now let's go national

[pathansen]

34. I still suspect he was doing community service for cocaine arrest

RAther than being in Alabama, James Hatfield, author of Fortunate Son stated that Bush was arrested in 1972 for cocaine possession (according to 3 reliable sources) and his dad got him out of serving time in prison by community service in Houston.
Bush has admitted (I understand) to doing community service in Houston at that time so why would he do this willingly (serve his community) AT THE SAME TIME he is serving his country? And why would he volunteer to help the poor in Houston while he claims to be in Alabama (the same year) helping someone with his political campaign.
This does not make sense. It's totally out of character for Bush and it would seem he would be talking alot about it to the black community yet he has said nothing that I know of.

[starroute]

35. Here's a rough timeline

April 1972 - Bush's regular attendance and positive reports with the Air National Guard end as of April 16. (If there was a drug incident, it probably took place at this time.)

May-October 1972 - Bush in Alabama, working on Blount's campaign (where many witnesses attest to his presence) but performing no National Guard service.

Summer 1972 - Bush fails to take flight physical. (It has been suggested that this was because he had already been suspended from flying due to drug use, but there is no direct evidence of this.)

Late October 1972 to early January 1973 - Bush credited with a few scattered days of service, although there is no record of his actually showing up in either Alabama or Houston (except one day when he had a dental exam.)

January 1973 - Bush begins apparent community service in Houston. No National Guard service in February or March.

Spring-Summer 1973 - Bush credited with numerous days of service.

September 1973 - Bush goes to Harvard Business school. No further days served, although his 6-year enlistment extends into 1974. (There was also some funny business with his addresses, where the National Guard first kept sending mail to him in Houston and then to an incorrect address at Harvard, but I haven't been able to find where I saw this.)


Calpundit had some interesting stuff last February about ARF, the Air Reserve Forces:

http://www.calpundit.com/archives/003220.html

ARF is the reserves, and among other things it's where members of the guard are sent for disciplinary reasons. As we all know, Bush failed to show up for his annual physical in July 1972, he was suspended in August, and the suspension was recorded on September 29. He was apparently transferred to ARF at that time and began accumulating ARF points in October.

ARF is a "paper unit" based in Denver that requires no drills and no attendance. For active guard members it is disciplinary because ARF members can theoretically be called up for active duty in the regular military, although this obviously never happened to George Bush.

To make a long story short, Bush apparently blew off drills beginning in May 1972, failed to show up for his physical, and was then grounded and transferred to ARF as a disciplinary measure. He didn't return to his original Texas Guard unit and cram in 36 days of active duty in 1973 — as Time magazine and others continue to assert based on a mistaken interpretation of Bush's 1973-74 ARF record — but rather accumulated only ARF points during that period. In fact, it's unclear even what the points on the ARF record are for, but what is clear is that Bush's official records from Texas show no actual duty after May 1972, as his Form 712 Master Personnel Record from the Texas Air National Guard clearly indicates."


This seems like the other half of the account that rawstory is putting together, and I'd like to see the two things integrated. I notice, for example, that the document rawstory posted in this thread has an ARF heading.


On edit: I also found this:

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/George-W.-Bush-military-service-controversy

On September 5, 1973, Bush requested his discharge from service, to be effective on October 1. He wrote, "I am moving to Boston, Massachusetts to attend Harvard Business School as a full time student." Jerry Killian recommended approval of the discharge the following day. He had completed 5 years, 4 months and 5 days toward his 6-year service obligation, and was honorably discharged from the Texas Air National Guard on October 1, 1973. He was immediately transferred to the inactive reserves in Denver, Colorado, and then discharged from the Air Force Reserve on November 21, 1974.

As we're learning, the "honorably discharged" part seems problematic. The real questions are about things like exactly when Bush was transferred to the ARF (1972 or 1973) and what it all meant.

[Rebellious Republican]

37. Somebody needs to get this info to the Kerry people, he has many

Retired Generals that could easily confirm these docs, and could publicly make statements about them.

[rawstory]

40. Do you have any numbers?

The Kerry people are being REALLY slow, probably because they want to hit Bush with this when it would hurt him most. But honestly, I think people deserve to know this now.

[rawstory]

41. CAN ANYONE HELP US GET THIS MAINSTREAM?

We're working all our contacts, but we don't have very many? Does anyone know reporters who would be really interested in this personally? Does anyone have high-level Dem contacts?

I just don't get it. Being AWOL isn't a joke. But no one in the press seems to care.

Much obliged for any help. Feel free to private message me.

[vetwife]

43. Guy James does..check with him.....

[rawstory]

46. how do i get in touch with 'guy james?'

Many thanks.

[Gregorian]

47. Try Google.

The first hit is his website.

[Laura_B_manslaughter]

42. That's how bush got the Honorable Discharge

Military does that a lot. If a soldier is a total effup they tell him he can have an HD if he'll leave and never return.

[wiggs]

48. Previous breaking news

Hopefully this will get legs.

However, whatever happened to the threads last week making hay over a new interpretation of the form numbers on Bush's paperwork that indicate a dishonorable discharge?

[TacticalPeek]

50. Kick.

:kick:

[TeeYiYi]

51. kick

TYY:kick: