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Archive of materials on George W. Bush's record of service in the Texas Air National Guard

Also see archive of articles on John Kerry's military service

(The links here may be outdated.  If you are looking for specific stories that cannot be accessed here, copy and paste the article title into Google.  In most cases, you will be taken to the original publication.)

What to watch for in these materials:

  • Reporters who fail to identify sources clearly and specifically.

  • Reporters who fail to acknowledge major stories published previously.

  • Reporters who claim to have found through exclusive sources information that was previously published on the Internet.

  • Reporters who skip over crucial information that conflicts with the overall slant of their stories.

  • Reporters who time stories to maximize buzz while pretending to be reporting breaking news.

  • Reporters who write as if they were columnists.

  • Reporters who attribute their own conclusions to others.

  • Reporters who make unverifiable claims.

  • Web sites that deliver clearly biased opinions under the guise of objectivity (Factcheck.org is probably the worst offender in this particular list, not because its conclusions are that much more mistaken than others, but because the site claims that its only function is to verify facts).

Possible approaches to using this archive for summaries and presentations:

  • If you are a Bush supporter, write a summary that gives full weight to the evidence that he failed to fulfill his obligations during his term in the National Guard.

  • If you are a Kerry supporter, write a summary that gives full weight to the historical context of Bush's apparent failure to fulfill his obligations during his term in the National Guard.

  • Write a summary that deals only with journalistic issues.  For example, go through various articles and blog entries to see if professional reporters properly credited and or described their sources. This approach will yield interesting results if you compare information first reported by bloggers and then reported as "new discoveries" by mainstream journalists.

  • Write a summary that focuses on the political circumstances under which some questions were raised while others were dropped (for example, compare the attention given to Bush's military record in 2000 with the attention paid to the issue in 2004).

In all cases, remember that your main task is to gather information for a brief presentation and a short summary.  To complete this assignment properly, you must try to keep your opinions from clouding your work.  Trying to maintain a reasonable degree of objectivity is not the same as pretending that you have no opinions.  On the contrary, a balanced perspective requires you to challenge yourself to recognize ways in which your opinions might shape your perception and presentation of facts.  In this case, if you find yourself making pronouncements about the meaning of military service or straying into other clearly ideological areas, stop, think, and get back on track.

Also, keep in mind that your summary will be very short.  Consequently, rather than trying to condense a massive pile of information, concentrate on one basic issue, question, or theme.

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Records show one-year gap in George Bush's Guard duty, Walter V. Robinson, 5/23/00)

After George W. Bush became governor in 1995, the Houston Air National Guard unit he had served with during the Vietnam War years honored him for his work, noting that he flew an F-102 fighter-interceptor until his discharge in October 1973.

Bush defends Guard record, denies that he missed duty, Walter V. Robinson, 5/24/00)

Texas Governor George W. Bush insisted yesterday that he fulfilled his military obligation and disputed parts of a Boston Globe report that there is no evidence that he appeared for duty for a year just before his 1973 discharge from the Texas Air National Guard.

Republican ticket lets a military connection slip, Walter Robinson, 7/28/00

The Republican Party, through 12 straight presidential elections, from Eisenhower in 1952 until Dole in 1996, matched its muscular approach to national defense by fielding candidates who had served in wartime.

Questions remain on Bush's service as Guard pilot, Walter V. Robinson, 10/31/00

Democrats 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.

Kerry blasts Bush on service, Walter V. Robinson, 11/1/00

Senator Bob Kerrey, a Nebraska Democrat who won the Medal of Honor for his service in Vietnam, expressed disgust yesterday at evidence that George W. Bush sidestepped National Guard duty for months in 1972 and 1973, a lapse that Kerrey said amounts to Bush being AWOL - absent without leave.
 
 
Bush's Record
Jan. 19, 1968: Bush completes Air Force officer qualifications test in New Haven, Conn., while attending Yale University.

May 27, 1968: Walter B. Staudt, commander of the Texas National Guard, interviews Bush and recommends he be accepted for pilot training. Bush's application for enlistment in the Guard is approved.

June 1968: Bush receives bachelor of arts degree from Yale.

July 12, 1968: A three-member Federal Recognition Examining Board reports Bush is qualified for promotion to 2nd Lieutenant in the 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron.

July 14, 1968: Bush attends basic military training in San Antonio.

Aug. 25, 1968: Bush completes basic military training.

Nov. 26, 1968-Dec. 2, 1969: Bush attends undergraduate pilot training with the 3559th Student Squadron, Moody Air Force Base, Ga. He is trained to fly standard Air Force aircraft, including the T-31, T-37, and T-39.

Dec. 29, 1969-Jan. 20, 1970: Bush is trainee with 111th Squadron, Ellington Air Force Base, near Houston.

Jan. 11, 1970: Bush is assigned flying duty as a pilot of F-102 fighter interceptors, 111th Squadron at Ellington.

Aug. 24, 1970: Three-member board recommends 2nd Lt. Bush for promotion to first lieutenant. Bush later receives the promotion.

1971: Bush participates in drills and alerts at Ellington, begins work for Houston-based agricultural company.

May 1972: Bush asks for and receives permission to continue his duties in Alabama while he works as political director on the Senate campaign of Winton M. Blount, a friend of his father. He loses flight credentials after missing physical exam.

Sept. 6, 1972: Bush's request for a three-month transfer to 187th TAC Recon Group, Montgomery, Ala., is approved so he can work as political director for a Senate campaign.

November 1972: Bush returns to his unit at Ellington in Texas.

May-July 1973: Bush participates in non-flying drills at Ellington; works at inner-city poverty program earlier in the year.

Sept. 18, 1973: Bush receives permission to transfer to reserve status and is placed on inactive guard duty about six months before six-year commitment ends; attends Harvard Business School in the fall.

Oct. 1, 1973: Bush receives honorable discharge.

Sources: National Guard Bureau records as compiled by The Associated Press.
Recent Boston Globe coverage (Posted 9/11/04)

'CYA' memo (9/11/04)

What follows is the full text of a document obtained by CBS News that appears to be a memo written by Lieutenant Colonel Jerry B. Killian, George W. Bush's commander when Bush served in the Texas Air National Guard. It refers to pressure Killian and other officers felt to write a more favorable evaluation of Bush's service than Killian thought ...

Authenticity backed on Bush documents, Francie Latour and Michael Rezendes, 9/11/04

After CBS News on Wednesday trumpeted newly discovered documents that referred to a 1973 effort to ''sugar coat" President Bush's service record in the Texas Air National Guard, the network almost immediately faced charges that the documents were forgeries, with typography that was not available on typewriters used at that time.

But specialists interviewed by the Globe and some other news organizations say the specialized characters used in the documents, and the type format, were common to electric typewriters in wide use in the early 1970s, when Bush was a first lieutenant.

Bid cited to boost Bush in Guard, Walter V. Robinson and Francie Latour,  9/9/04

In August 1973, President Bush's superior officer in the Texas Air National Guard wrote a memorandum complaining that the commanding general wanted him to ''sugar coat" an annual officer evaluation for First Lieutenant Bush, even though Bush had not been at the base for the year in question, according to new documents obtained and broadcast last night by CBS News.

Bush fell short on duty at Guard , Boston Globe, 9/8/04

This article was reported by the Globe Spotlight Team -- reporters Stephen Kurkjian, Francie Latour, Sacha Pfeiffer, and Michael Rezendes, and editor Walter V. Robinson. It was written by Robinson.

In February, when the White House made public hundreds of pages of President Bush's military records, White House officials repeatedly insisted that the records prove that Bush fulfilled his military commitment in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War.
 

Bush releases his military records, Walter V. Robinson and Wayne Washington, 2/14/04

 

WASHINGTON -- After days of hesitation, the White House last night made public what it said were all of President Bush's military records. But the records seemed to add virtually no new information about Bush's stint in the Texas Air National Guard that concluded with a final year of sporadic duty and an early return in 1973 to civilian life.

Doubts raised on Bush accuser, Michael Rezendes, 2/13/04

For at least six years, a retired Texas National Guard officer has maintained that President Bush's record as a member of the Guard was purged of potentially embarrassing material at the behest of high-ranking Bush aides laying the groundwork for Bush's 2000 run for the presidency.

Bush's loss of flying status should have spurred probe, Walter V. Robinson and Francie Latour, 2/12/04

President Bush's August 1972 suspension from flight status in the Texas Air National Guard -- triggered by his failure to take a required annual flight physical -- should have prompted an investigation by his commander, a written acknowledgement by Bush, and perhaps a written report to senior Air Force officials, according to Air Force regulations in effect at the time.

White House releases Bush's Guard records, Walter V. Robinson and Michael Rezendes, 2/11/04

Moving to squelch an election year controversy, the White House yesterday made public records showing that President Bush attended some Air National Guard training between mid-1972 and mid-1973 and was paid for it, and said the records refute reports that Bush did not fulfill his military obligation during the Vietnam War.

Bush credited for Guard drills, Walter V. Robinson, 2/10/04

President Bush received credit for attending Air National Guard drills in the fall of 1972 and spring of 1973 -- a period when his commanders have said he did not appear for duty at bases in Montgomery, Ala., and Houston -- according to two new documents obtained by the Globe.
Pop-up View document showing Bush's record

Re-examining Bush's Guard service, Walter V. Robinson, 2/5/04

Michael Moore, the documentary filmmaker, started it, labeling President Bush a military "deserter" during an appearance last month with Democratic presidential candidate Wesley K. Clark...
 

   ARTICLES AND OPINION - PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO DATES

   Coverage in 2003

   Coverage in 2004

Comprehensive Sites:

Echoes of Vietnam

 

Thirty-five years after the end of war in Vietnam, the choices candidates made as young men eligible to serve in that era serve as part of a larger debate over patriotism, leadership and character.

George W. Bush
George W. Bush
John Kerry
1966
Attends Yale University
Graduates Yale; joins Navy and begins officer training
1967
Yale
Assigned to frigate USS Gridley
1968
Graduates Yale; joins Texas Air National Guard; takes eight-week leave to work on Senate campaign in Florida
First trip to Southeast Asia to support aircraft carriers in Gulf of Tonkin; swift boat training in California; returns to Vietnam for coastal and inland waterway patrol; shoulder wound during firefight
1969
Graduates flight school at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia
Wounded in thigh; wins Silver Star for chasing and killing a sniper after landing boat in enemy position; gets third Purple Heart when mine explodes near boat; returns to New York to serve as admiral’s aide
1970
Graduates Combat Crew Training School at Ellington Air Force Base in Texas
Honorable discharge six months before commitment ends to run for House seat in Massachusetts, but gives up bid for Democratic nomination; joins Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
1971
Drills and alerts at Ellington
Organizes anti-war protests in Washington, D.C.; tosses his war ribbons in protest; testifies to Congress against conflict; gets arrested at protest
1972
Takes last flight as guard pilot; transfers to Alabama unit while working on campaign; no record of him reporting, but says he participated; loses flight credentials; returns to Texas
Leaves anti-war group; wins nomination for Massachusetts Fifth District in House but loses election; worked as fund-raiser for CARE, Inc.
1973
Participates in non-flying drills at Ellington; works at inner-city poverty program; placed on inactive guard duty six months before commitment ends; starts Harvard Business School
Starts Boston College Law School
1974
Harvard Business School
Boston College Law School
Source: Associated Press

Kerry in Vietnam

 One of the central tenets of John Kerry's presidential campaign is his Vietnam war record, but some critics are calling it into question.  Read more