We can debate endlessly about what some politically motivated statements that wouldn't stand up in a court of law really mean. But the public records of John Kerry show that he volunteered and served two tours of duty in a combat zone and was highly decorated. The public record shows George Bush was absent without leave from his national guard unit during wartime and lost his flight status by failing to take a drug test. There were attempts to cover this up. There is significant evidence of favoritism shown to the Congressmans son.
Bush Files Details Caused Concerns
"As Texas Gov. George W. Bush prepared to run for president in the late 1990s, top-ranking Texas National Guard officers and Bush advisers discussed ways to limit the release of potentially embarrassing details from Bush's military records, a former senior officer of the Texas Guard said Wednesday."
Pentagon Says Bush Record of Service Were Destroyed
"Military records that could help establish President Bush's whereabouts during his disputed service in the Texas Air National Guard more than 30 years ago have been inadvertently destroyed, according to the Pentagon."
Pentagon Finds Bush's Guard Records
"The Pentagon on Friday released newly discovered payroll records from President Bush's 1972 service in the Alabama National Guard, though the records shed no new light on the future president's activities during that summer. . . . The newly released computerized payroll records show no indication Bush drilled with the Alabama unit during July, August and September of 1972. Pay records covering all of 1972, released previously, also indicated no guard service for Bush during those three months."
Bush Records Raise More Questions Than They Answer
"We know now that there were certified Air Force flight surgeons assigned to Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery at the time when Bush was living in Montgomery, Alabama, where Maxwell is located. This means that Bush lied to us when he claimed that he could not take the drug test in Alabama because his personal doctor was in Houston–only certified flight surgeons were qualified to administer the test.
Bush says that he quit flying because his group was phasing out the F-102 when he returned to Ellington after the political campaign in Alabama. But we know now that Bush’s excuse for his abandoning flying the F-102 was false, that his group was still flying F-102’s for a year after he left the service. We learned from his commander, Major General Bobby W. Hodges, that ''If [Bush] had come back to Houston, I would have kept him flying the 102 until he got out. But I don't recall him coming back at all.''
And there are the haunting voices of the late Lieutenant Colonel William D. Harris Jr. and Lieutenant Colonel Jerry B. Killian, whose reports state that they could not fill out Bush’s annual evaluation because, ''Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit during the period of report."
Click to expand...