{"id":291,"date":"2003-05-08T09:58:30","date_gmt":"2003-05-08T14:58:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=291"},"modified":"2003-05-08T09:58:30","modified_gmt":"2003-05-08T14:58:30","slug":"awol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/05\/08\/awol.html","title":{"rendered":"AWOL?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the invective-fest that’s become national political dialog, critics of Dubya have long enjoyed turning the tables on the folks who pilloried Clinton <\/a>for his draft evasion tactics during Nam, by pointing out that not only did Dubya duck out into the Air National Guard, but he was a crappy pilot who went AWOL a lot.<\/p>\n

Heck, I even thought I’d made it the subject of a blog entry before (couldn’t find it, but I did find a reference to it in one about Michael Moore). Plus, I was willing to cut him at least some slack, since he seems to have made a major turnaround in his personal life since the 70s.<\/p>\n

Well, looking at the actual record, it may well be that the charge has been trumped up<\/a>. Both the Boston Globe <\/i>and the NY Times <\/i>have looked at the records in question, and a lot of the nastiest allegations (particularly the AWOL ones) haven’t panned out.<\/p>\n

[Globe:] Those who trained and flew with Bush, until he gave up flying in April 1972, said he was among the best pilots in the 111th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron. In the 22-month period between the end of his flight training and his move to Alabama, Bush logged numerous hours of duty, well above the minimum requirements for so-called ”weekend warriors.”
\nIndeed, in the first four years of his six-year commitment, Bush spent the equivalent of 21 months on active duty, including 18 months in flight school. His Democratic opponent, Vice President Al Gore, who enlisted in the Army for two years and spent five months in Vietnam, logged only about a month more active service, since he won an early release from service.
\n[NY Times:] [R]egulations allowed Guard members to miss duty as long as it was made up within the same quarter. Mr. Bartlett pointed to a document in Mr. Bush’s military records that showed credit for four days of duty ending Nov. 29 and for eight days ending Dec. 14, 1972, and, after he moved back to Houston, on dates in January, April and May. The May dates correlated with orders sent to Mr. Bush at his Houston apartment on April 23, 1973, in which Sgt. Billy B. Lamar told Mr. Bush to report for active duty on May 1-3 and May 8-10. Another document showed that Mr. Bush served at various times from May 29, 1973, through July 30, 1973, a period of time questioned by The Globe.<\/p>\n

Not that I expect that <\/a>to end this particular urban legend. Certainly there may be more to the story than that, but it doesn’t look like Dubya was any more of a slacker than some of his presidential peers.<\/p>\n

(via InstaPundit<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the invective-fest that’s become national political dialog, critics of Dubya have long enjoyed turning the tables on the folks who pilloried Clinton for his draft evasion tactics during Nam,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8203,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/04\/27\/well_we_cant_ha.html","url_meta":{"origin":291,"position":0},"title":"Well, we can’t have that now, can we?","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 27-Apr-05 9:50am","format":false,"excerpt":"There's a new technology out there that vaporizes booze and lets folks inhale it. It is said to create a \"zero-carb\" and zero-hangover buzz. The devices are sold on the...","rel":"","context":"In "Food & Drink"","block_context":{"text":"Food & Drink","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/food-drink"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":137359,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/10\/18\/lies-damn-lies-and-trump-being-trump.html","url_meta":{"origin":291,"position":1},"title":"Lies, Damn Lies, and "Trump Being Trump"","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 18-Oct-18 10:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A factoid for those who repeat Trump's assertions that he got military personnel either the only or the biggest pay raise they'd received in a decade. (Spoiler: he didn't. Not even the second biggest raise. Dubya and Obama both have him beat.) Trump's claims of largest raise for troops counter\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129160,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/17\/symbolic-votes-and-vetos-in-electoral-politics.html","url_meta":{"origin":291,"position":2},"title":""Symbolic" "vote"s and "veto"s in electoral politics","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 17-Dec-15 12:41pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Apparently Congress casting symbolic votes in the face of veto threats is the new pre-Presidential Election Year game, as congresscritters push through bills they know That Guy in the White House will veto. (And, yes, the trend starts during the Dubya years, but has grown during the Obama Administration, though\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/20151212_usc711.pngimgmax%3D660.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/20151212_usc711.pngimgmax%3D660.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/20151212_usc711.pngimgmax%3D660.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6249,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/10\/03\/bottoms_up_5.html","url_meta":{"origin":291,"position":3},"title":"Bottoms up","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 3-Oct-04 11:31pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I do not want to encourage binge drinking, let alone the dangers of drunken driving. 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