George W. Bush military service controversy

The George W. Bush military service controversy is an ongoing American political controversy regarding U.S. President George W. Bush and the differing contentions about his service with the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War. The controversy was discussed in the mass media during the 2000 presidential campaign and again in the 2004 presidential campaign. Prior to his presidential campaigns, opponents of Bush invoked various contentions about his service during his successful Texas Gubernatorial campaigns in 1994 and 1998. In 1998, Harriet Miers, then the president of a prominent Dallas law firm, and Bush's personal attorney, was paid $19,000 by the Bush gubernatorial re-election campaign to examine rumors questioning Bush's service in the National Guard.

Release of military records

During the 2000 presidential campaign, various military records of Bush were made public by the Bush campaign.

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On February 13, 2004, more than 700 additional pages of documents on Bush's service were released, including those from the National Personnel Records Center, under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act. This release is claimed by some to contradict the February 8 2004, statement by Bush to Meet the Press interviewer Tim Russert that "We did in 2000, by the way." In response, Bush contended that he was referring only to documents already in his possession, as opposed to the newly released documents from military sources.

Related Topics:
February 13 - 2004 - National Personnel Records Center - Freedom of Information Act - February 8

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James Moore, an Emmy Award winning TV news correspondent from Texas, has said that the documents that were given out in February 2004 were incomplete because they "were shipped to General Danny James in Washington. They were all printed out and vetted by General James' office. Then they were sent to the White House, and they were vetted by the White House. And then they did the Friday evening document dump on the reporters."

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James Moore - Emmy Award

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http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/04/04/int04021.html. He also said that he has a statement from the National Personnel Records Center that the records of George W. Bush have not been altered in any way since they were committed to microfiche there. He believes that full disclosure of the entire microfiche could be quite damning http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/13/1543213&mode=thread&tid=25.

Related Topics:
National Personnel Records Center - George W. Bush

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On June 22 2004, The Associated Press sued the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Air Force, seeking access to all of Bush's records during his military service.

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June 22 - 2004 - Associated Press - U.S. Department of Defense - U.S. Air Force

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On July 8 2004, the Pentagon reported that the microfilmed payroll records of Bush and numerous other service members had been inadvertently ruined in 1996 and 1997 by the Defense Finance and Accounting Service during a project to salvage deteriorating microfilm. The records lost included those covering July through September of 1972, when Bush's claims of service in Alabama are in question, and the Pentagon reported that no paper backups could be found.

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July 8 - 2004 - The Pentagon - Microfilm - Defense Finance and Accounting Service

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On July 23 2004, the Pentagon reported that the records it had previously reported destroyed had been found. A Pentagon official said the earlier statement that the records were destroyed was an "inadvertent oversight." The Pentagon released computerized payroll records covering Bush's 1972 service. Like the records released earlier by the White House, the newly released documents did not indicate that Bush performed any drills, in Alabama or elsewhere, during July through September of 1972.

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July 23 - 2004

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On September 9 2004, the White House released the flight logs recording the flights done by George Bush as a pilot. A Pentagon spokeswoman said the logs were found at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, which is the central repository for veterans' records. She said the logs were found among a batch of records sent to St. Louis from Norton Air Force Base in 1993, which were originally thought to contain records of active-duty officers rather than of National Guardsmen such as Bush.

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September 9 - 2004

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On September 29 2004, the White House released a November 1974 document, saying it had been in Bush's personnel file and that it had been found by the Pentagon.

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September 29 - 2004

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On October 5 2004, more than a week after a court-imposed deadline to turn over all records of Bush's military service, the Texas Air National Guard produced two previously unreleased documents (four pages of records) that include Bush's orders for his last day of active duty in 1973.

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October 5 - 2004

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On October 14 2004, the Texas National Guard released 31 pages of documents found by two retired Army lawyers who went through Guard files under an agreement between the Texas National Guard and The Associated Press, which sued to gain access to the files. A Guard spokesman defended the continuing discoveries, saying Guard officials didn?t find all of Bush?s records because they are disorganized and in poor shape. "These boxes are full of dirt and rat (excrement) and dead bugs. They have never been sitting in an uncontrolled climate," said Lt. Col. John Stanford. "It?s a tough task to go through archives that were not set up in a way that you could easily go through them." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6257505/

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October 14 - 2004

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