woman says smirk was stopped from flying because he was scared

[donsu]

http://www.legitgov.org/essay_eastman_bush_fear_of_flying_in_guard_092304.html

Fear of Flying: A Duval County Woman Says Nerves Ended W's National Guard Service In Texas -- by Susan Cooper Eastman


Janet Linke has been thinking about George W. Bush a lot lately. Thirty-two years ago, her late husband Jan Peter Linke served briefly in the Texas Air National Guard's 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron. Bush's service in the same squadron has gotten plenty of mention in an election year when what you did during the Vietnam War is suddenly a litmus test of character. But Linke claims she knows a part of the story that nobody has mentioned.

According to Linke, a Jacksonville resident and artist, Bush's flying career was permanently disabled by a crippling fear of flying.

Linke's husband was admitted to the Texas Guard in the summer of 1972 to replace Bush. President Bush has said that he stopped flying fighter jets because the Alabama Guard unit didn't have jets, and he wanted to transfer to Alabama in order to work on a political campaign. But Linke says she heard a different story from her husband and Bush's squad commander, the late Lt. Col. Jerry Killian. Shortly after her husband joined the Texas unit, Linke says, the couple discussed Bush's service with Killian at a social event.

Contrary to some news reports that suggest Killian admired Bush, Linke says the officer didn't have much use for the young Lieutenant. He mentioned that Bush appeared to have a drinking problem, she recalls, but he was most offended by another incapacity: his fear of flying. According to Linke, Killian said Bush was grounded in his fourth year of flying after he became incapable of flying or properly landing a plane.

"He was mucking up bad, Killian told us," Linke says. "He just became afraid to fly."
-snip-
----------------------------------


logs seemed to say that extra training didn't help

and Janet's son is still going to vote for smirk because not every one has the nerve to be a pilot

[amber dog democrat]

1. It appears he did not have the right stuff

ever. He seems to have a fear of voters too.

[the Kelly Gang]

2. boozing / cocaine puts your nerves on edge

[lpbk2713]

3. I'll bet it wasn't a fear of flying but rather

a fear that his outfit would be sent to Nam. It probably made him mess his pants and cry himself to sleep every night. That might also explain the excessive drinking.

[soothsayer]

4. What a lousy excuse for a human being

Worst (so called) president EVER!

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. That would be consistant with the logs that show he spent a lot

of time in simulated training sessions.