AWOL BUSH FROM BUZZFLASH

[xkenx]

BuzzFlash Reader Contribution

August 13, 2004 CONTRIBUTOR ARCHIVES
Citizens for Honest Fighter Pilots Ask Bush To Get Honest

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
by Evelyn Pringle

Citizens for Honest Fighter Pilots call on Bush to explain how he could fail to show up for his annual physical, get suspended as a fighter pilot, and escape any discipline whatsoever.

First of all, let's put one theory to rest, any suggestion that he could simply decide to quit flying, with two years left on his commitment, after a quarter of a million dollars was invested in his training, is absurd. He needs to clear up this issue once and for all.

When Bush joined the guard, he said he had a goal of "making flying a lifetime pursuit," and signed a document stating, "I understand that I may be ordered to active duty for a period not to exceed 24 months for unsatisfactory participation."

Yet, even under the threat of being placed on active duty, he failed to show up. His 1972 suspension order states: "Verbal orders of the Comdr on 1 Aug 72 suspending 1STLT George W. Bush ... from flying status are confirmed ... Reason for Suspension: Failure to accomplish annual medical examination. Off will comply with para 2-10, AFM 35-13.

AFM 35-13 specifies that "When a Rated Officer Fails To Accomplish a Medical Examination Prescribed by AFM ... (1) The local commander ... will direct an investigation ... (2) will forward the report along with the command recommendation to USAFMPC/DPMAJD, Randolph AFB TX 78148 for final determination."

There is no record of the an investigation or a follow-up report. Two retired generals say it is unheard of for a pilot to miss a flight physical and not be investigated. "There is no excuse for that. Aviators just don't miss their flight physicals," said Major General Paul Weaver, retired director of the Air National Guard.

Brigadier General David McGinnis said that "Failure to take your flight physical is like a failure to show up for duty. It is an obligation you can't blow off," and that regulations would have required an investigation of the matter.

McGinnis says that Bush's superiors may have decided "to get him off the books, make his father happy, and hope no one would notice." But there still should have been a report. "If it didn't happen, that shows how far they were willing to stretch the rules to accommodate" then Lt Bush.

Over time, the Bush camp has given 3 different equally dishonest stories, about why he was suspended. First it was that he did not take the physical because his personal physician was in Houston. The Boston Globe put that lie to rest when it reported that "flight physicals can be administered only by certified Air Force flight surgeons, and some were assigned at the time to Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, where Bush was living."

On another date, his people told the London Times that he didn't have to take an exam, "As he was not flying, there was no reason for him to take the flight physical exam."

Then spokesman, Dan Bartlett, told reporters that Bush knew that he would be suspended because his paperwork hadn't caught up with him. "It was just a question of following the bureaucratic procedure of the time," Bartlett said. "He knew the suspension would have to take place."

So which is it, (a) his family physician wasn't in Alabama, (b) he didn't have to take it because he wasn't flying; or (3) the suspension was caused by a bureaucratic mix-up of paperwork?

At a later date, Bush said he quit flying because the plane he trained on was no longer in use. That was also a lie. His Unit flew the F-102 until 1974. His Texas commander, Retired Major Bobby Hodges said, "If he had come back to Houston, I would have kept him flying the 102 until he got out, but I don't remember him coming back at all."

To get into pilot training, Bush signed a pledge to fly for 5 years after he completed his training to ensure that tax dollars would be well-spent. He grossly violated that pledge and he should be required to repay taxpayers for the cost of his training.

Evelyn Pringle

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. Pilots call on Bush to explain how he could fail

haven't they been watching???


I'd like to know how he could not make the cheerleading team the first year.... and then be captain of it the next. Daddy... daddy!!!????

[grasswire]

6. this is not a group of pilots

Read the letter carefully.

It's good fun, though.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

7. Yo

Haste makes waste grandma always used to say.... good one!!

[Toots]

9. It's CITIZENS for HONEST Pilots

The letter never makes the claim they are pilots.

[Toots]

2. Whoop.............. There It Is

This is the meat on the bone. This is Bush*'s nightmare come back to haunt him. They have no logical explanation for this. He disobeyed orders. No getting around it. And yes he should have to reimburse Texas for the money spent in his training.

[tomfodw]

4. It's not haunting him at all

Because he knows with complete (and unfortunately justified) confidence that the despicably toothless and somnolent press will let him get away with it, just as they did in 2000. While the Shitboat Vermin for Filth get countless hours of uncontested TV time, nobody who counts is turning the spotlight on Daddy's Little Dubya to point out that no matter what Kerry did or didn't do in Vietnam, at least he was in Vietnam in the first place!

And even if Bush doesn't need to explain why he wasn't there - because, unlike Kerry, Bush does not make his personal service record the core of his credentials to be president (not that Kerry does either) - Bush has made his belligerent doctrine of preemptive war the centerpiece of his foreign policy, which to me is a kind of projection - a little kid playing soldier because he has no personal experience of the true horror of war and a complete, unbecoming lack of imagination to even guess what it must actually be like. (Sorry for the long sentence.)

Anyway, my point is, Bush gets a complete pass for the press on everything - his cowardice and desertion, his business failures, his corruption, his isolating the US from all our allies, even his bumbling verbal stupidities. He's never in his life had to suffer the consequences of any of his many misdeeds - why should he think it's going to be any different now? His rightwing allies attack attack attack to deflect attention from him, and the rest of the press, sick and tired of dealing with the right-wing goon squad calumnnies, goes along with the cover-up.

[Toots]

8. I really hope you are wrong but what you say is so logical

I think the tide is turning though, because of the internet. Things are starting to show up where you least expect it. Also we (DUers)can play a part in spreading this one particular incident that has no justification. AWOL is just too murky. We will never make that one stick but disobeying an order is something that military people would be interested in. I'm sure if enough people hear of this through LTTEs and what not it eventially will sink in some.

[imax2268]

3. I can only think of one word to explain his absence...

"Daddy"...!

[Toots]

5. We should astroturf this letter

Or at least take all the pertinent points and send off LTTE's to every paper in America. This is really powerful stuff without being foul lies like the smear boat slime.

[Miss Authoritiva]

10. An excellent summation of the lies to date regarding

Bush's missed flight physical. But let's face it: the files regarding any follow-up investigation or report have been scrubbed clean, not to protect George W. Bush but George H.W. Bush.

Think about it: back then I doubt the Bush family had high hopes for their perennial screw-up first born. However, Bush the Elder was moving up the party ranks with a series of appointed and elected positions -- and Junior's desertion and dishonorable discharge would have been politically humiliating and would have taken some of the gleam off his Daddy's Distinguished Flying Cross.

If those who really know about Dubya's desertion haven't spoken up by now, they're not ever going to talk. So Dubya gets to tout his fraudulent honorable discharge. And in the Bush family circle, that's just how things are done.