FROM THE ARCHIVES
Questions remain on Bush's service as Guard pilotFor Vice President Al Gore, the character issue is like chewing gum stuck to the sole of his shoe: Hardly a day passes without Republicans challenging Gore's character, especially his storied tendency to embellish facts.
But Democrats are crying foul, saying that Bush has overstated his own record and with far less political consequence. Belatedly, they are calling attention to misleading claims Bush and his campaign have made about his Vietnam-era service as a fighter pilot with the Texas Air National Guard, and to documents that contradict Bush's insistence that he attended required drills in Alabama and Texas in 1972 and 1973.Five months after the Globe first reported those discrepancies, Bush's biography on his presidential campaign Web site remains unchanged, stating that he served as a pilot in the Texas Guard from 1968 to 1973. In fact, Bush only flew with the 111th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron at Ellington Field in Houston from June 1970 until April 1972. That month he ceased flying altogether, two years before his military commitment ended, an unusual step that has left some veteran fighter pilots puzzled. In Alabama, a group of Vietnam veterans recently offered a $1,000 reward for anyone who can verify Bush's claim that he performed service at a Montgomery air guard unit in 1972, when Bush was temporarily in Alabama working on a political campaign. So far, no one has come forward. The reward is now $3,500. What's more, a Bush campaign spokesman acknowledged last week that he knows of no witnesses who can attest to Bush's attendance at drills after he returned to Houston in late 1972 and before his early release from the Guard in September 1973. There is strong evidence that Bush performed no military service, as was required, when he moved from Houston to Alabama to work on a US Senate campaign from May to November 1972. There are no records of any service and the commanding officer of the unit Bush was assigned to said he never saw him. During Bush's Alabama sojourn, he was suspended from flight duty for not taking his annual flight physical. The Bush campaign's initial explanation for the lapse, it now admits, was wrong. Dan Bartlett, a Bush campaign spokesman, pointed to incomplete records - one a torn page without Bush's name or any discernible dates - as evidence that he did enough drills in Houston in the closing months of his service to satisfy military obligations. Major Thomas A. Deall, a spokesman for the Air Reserve Personnel Center in Denver, said last week that officials there now believe that after looking at Bush's records, he met minimum drill requirements before his discharge. Still, as the Globe reported in May, two documents and the recollections of officers who said they believe that Bush did not return to his Houston base after leaving for Alabama raise questions about whether Bush performed any duty between April 1972 and September 1973, the month Bush entered Harvard Business School. Continued... |
