Quote:
Originally posted by WenD08
USA Today in today's issue has an article on Bush and his non-service. i do hope folks will heed all the new info out on him. this isn't that Swift Boat stuff, this is real...
Guard commander's memos criticize Bush
By Dave Moniz and Jim Drinkard, USA TODAYWASHINGTON — President Bush's commander in the Texas Air National Guard concluded that Bush was failing to meet standards for fighter pilots, but the commander felt pressure from superiors to "sugar coat" his judgments, according to newly disclosed documents.George W. Bush in the cockpit of an F-102 during his service in the Texas Air National Guard.
Austin-American Statesman
The memos, obtained by USA TODAY and also reported Wednesday on the CBS program 60 Minutes, reveal that Bush's commander, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, was critical of Bush's performance as a pilot in the latter years of his Vietnam-era Guard career. Killian cited Bush for "failure to perform" to Air Force and Air National Guard standards and called for him to be replaced "with a more seasoned pilot."
The conclusions by Killian, who died in 1984, show Bush's performance declining between his 1971 pilot evaluation, which was glowing, and the time in 1972 when records show he began failing to show up for duty and failed to take a medical exam that was required for him to keep flying.
click on link or cut and paste to read more...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politic...rd-memos_x.htm
|
For those looking for facts and not just something to boost their own viewpoint:
Bush Piloted Guard Trainers Before He Quit
Friday, September 10, 2004
WASHINGTON — George W. Bush (search) began flying a two-seat training jet more frequently and twice required multiple attempts to land a one-seat fighter in the weeks just before he quit flying for the Texas Air National Guard (search) in 1972, his pilot logs show.
The logs show Bush flew nine times in T-33 trainers in February and March 1972, including eight times in one week and four of those only as a co-pilot. Bush, then a first lieutenant, flew in T-33s only twice in the previous six months and three times in the year ending July 31, 1971.
The records also show Bush required two passes to land an F-102A fighter on March 12 and April 10, 1972. His last flight as an Air National Guard pilot was on April 16.
Meanwhile, questions were raised Thursday about the authenticity of newly unearthed memos purporting to have been written by one of Bush's commanders in 1972 and 1973. The memos, which were publicized by CBS News on its "60 Minutes" program, say Bush ignored a direct order from a superior officer and lost his status as a Guard pilot because he failed to meet military performance standards and undergo a required physical exam.
The network defended the memos, saying its experts who examined the memos concluded they were authentic documents produced by Lt. Col. Jerry Killian (search).
But Killian's son, one of Killian's fellow officers and an independent document examiner questioned the memos Gary Killian, who served in the Guard with his father and retired as a captain in 1991, said he doubted his father would have written an unsigned memo which said there was pressure to "sugar coat" Bush's performance review.
"It just wouldn't happen," he said. "No officer in his right mind would write a memo like that."
The personnel chief in Killian's unit at the time also said he believes the documents are fake.
"They looked to me like forgeries," said Rufus Martin. "I don't think Killian would do that, and I knew him for 17 years." Killian died in 1984.
Independent document examiner Sandra Ramsey Lines said the memos looked like they had been produced on a computer using Microsoft Word software. Lines, a document expert and fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, pointed to a superscript — a smaller, raised "th" in "111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron" — as evidence indicating forgery.
Microsoft Word automatically inserts superscripts in the same style as the two on the memos obtained by CBS, she said.
"I'm virtually certain these were computer generated," Lines said after reviewing copies of the documents at her office in Paradise Valley, Ariz. She produced a nearly identical document using her computer's Microsoft Word software.
The Defense Department released Bush's pilot logs this week under pressure from a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by The Associated Press. The logs do not explain why Bush was flying T-33s or why he twice needed multiple approaches to make landings.
White House spokesman Trent Duffy said Thursday said he had no information on the reasons behind the multiple-approach landings or the surge in training-jet flights.
"He did his training and was honorably discharged," Duffy said.
Read rest here:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,131961,00.html