Bush Panic Attack story in easy to email form:

[troublemaker]

I have dressed this up a little to put it in an easy to email form:
________________________________________

Did Bush lose his pilot status due to a crippling anxiety disorder?

At one time Janet Linke’s version of events in this Folio Weekly article seemed easy to dismiss, but the recent release of Bush’s flight logs (AP link below) provides unexpected verification straight from the White House.

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. According to Linke… 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. 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."

…flight logs released by the White House three weeks ago in response to a lawsuit by the Associated Press (link below) show a strange retraction of Bush's air time around that period. In February and March 1972, Bush switched from flying the F102A fighter jet, which the guard used to patrol U.S. borders, to a two-seat T-33 training jet. His superiors also returned him to flight simulator practice sessions. But records suggest the extra training sessions didn't help. Logs show that in March and April 1972, Bush twice needed multiple tries to land the F102 fighter. Days later, on April 16, Bush piloted a plane for the Texas Air National Guard for the last time. "He just couldn't cut it," says Linke. "I was let to believe he was kind of a coward." (Folio Weekly was able to reach two former Bush squadmates in Texas, but both declined to be interviewed.) In May 1972, Bush left Texas. He headed to Alabama, where he requested assignment with the postal reserve unit. Bush's request was initially denied. Bu in August 1972, Killian stripped Bush of his flying duties for failing to take an annual physical. In September he was ordered to taken an administrative post with the Alabama Guard.


*** From Folio Weekly, Jacksonville, FL:
http://www.legitgov.org/essay_eastman_bush_fear_of_flying_in_guard_092304.html
*** AP Trainer demotion and deterioration of skills article:
http://new.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=69408

[rocktivity]

1. So they couldn't give him a desk job?

Or would have made it look like he'd flunked out of flight school? This could be another con--giving George a medical excuse for being AWOL.

:headbang:
rocknation

[still_one]

2. today matters not 35 years ago

the screw up in Iraq is unforgivable

I believe bring up this nonesenes will not help us

[billybob537]

4. You are correct

The focus needs to stay on what he screwed up lately. Iraq is an ever increaseing nightmare, Osamma Bin Laden is still alive and well and plotting against us, and the economy is crippled by Bush* policies.
For more years of this?
Who's that stupid?

[troublemaker]

6. Freezing under duress has been relevant for Presidents since 1945

[librechik]

3. Ha ha--I think the cocaine gave him panic attacks!

he was a coward in the womb! Cheerleader! Give me a break!

[Crunchy Frog]

5. I disagree with the people who say

this isn't relevant today.

If he has an anxiety disorder, it would certainly go some way to explaining his behavior on the morning of 9/11. In today's world we can't afford to have a president who freezes in panic during times of national emergency.

I suffer from an anxiety disorder, so I'm not unsympathetic, but then, I'm not trying to be the leader of the free world during a period of international crisis.

Maybe you could add some commentary to it specifically tying it in to contemporary concerns about *' leadership capability under current circumstances.