NATIONAL DESK

By DAVID BARSTOW (NYT) 1637 words

At Fort George C. Wallace, the Montgomery headquarters of the Alabama National Guard, officials have responded to growing scrutiny of President Bush's military record by searching through records for proof of his service in the 187th Tactical Reconnaissance Group. Former comrades from the 187th have been calling and e-mailing one another, always with the same basic question: Did you see him?

So far, it appears that their efforts have come to naught. Indeed, in interviews this week with The New York Times, 16 retired officers, pilots and senior enlisted men who served among hundreds with the 187th in 1972 all said that they simply could not recall seeing Mr. Bush at Dannelly Air Base, the sprawling compound adjacent to Montgomery's airport that is home to the 187th.

Those interviewed either held key supervisory positions at the base or were members of the fraternity of pilots and navigators who often congregated in a lounge on the second floor of Dannelly's main hangar. They worked in different units of the 187th, including the maintenance squadron, the supply squadron, the headquarters staff, flight safety and the flight operations center.

Yet try as they might -- nearly all voiced strong support for Mr. Bush -- none remembered crossing paths with him. Nor had any heard of anyone else in the 187th who recalled seeing him.

''I don't have any recollection at all -- zero, none,'' said Rodger S. Garrett, the sergeant who supervised the command post at the flight operations center, the unit Mr. Bush was instructed to report to in September 1972.

As Mr. Garrett and the other men interviewed were quick to note, the fact that they do not remember Mr. Bush does not mean he did not pull duty at the base, as the president insists he did.

''I think if George Bush had sat down and had chow with me in 1972, I don't think I'd remember him today,'' said Lonnie J. Slauson Jr., who in 1972 was a major and the executive support officer at the 187th headquarters building at Dannelly. ''I didn't know his daddy was an ambassador, and to expound on that, I couldn't have cared less if I did.''

For his part, Mr. Bush has never offered any detailed descriptions of what jobs he did at the 187th. ''I can't remember what I did, but I wasn't flying because they didn't have the same airplanes,'' he told reporters in 2000.

His aides have said he did ''desk work.''

Complicating matters, many of the senior officers are now dead. As well, 1972 was a hectic year at Dannelly Air Base, then home to some 850 Guard members. A new reconnaissance jet, the F-4 Phantom II, was being introduced to the base, and with the new jet came hundreds of new pilots, navigators and support personnel.

''Everybody was learning a new job,'' said James E. Daniel, 69, who supervised the pilots and navigators at Dannelly in 1972 as commander of the 160th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron.

Mr. Daniel declined to say whether he recalled seeing Mr. Bush, then an F-102 fighter pilot for the Texas Air National Guard.

Still, the interviews this week deepen a mystery that first surfaced during the 2000 presidential campaign when The Boston Globe reported that there was no record that Mr. Bush showed up for Guard drills between May 1972, when he moved to Alabama from Texas to work on a United States Senate race, and May 1973. Mr. Bush had been ordered in September 1972 to report for ''equivalent training'' to William R. Turnipseed, the 187th's deputy commander of operations, but The Globe quoted Mr. Turnipseed in 2000 as saying that Mr. Bush never reported to him.

In response to The Globe's article, Mr. Bush's election campaign appealed for members of the Alabama Air National Guard to come forward and vouch for his service, and a group of Vietnam veterans in Alabama offered a $1,000 reward for anyone with proof that Mr. Bush served. No one has come forward.

Sensing an opening in a new election year, leading Democrats have recently seized on the issue anew by hammering one simple question: If Mr. Bush served in Alabama, how come no one remembers him?

This week the White House released additional military records in an effort to prove that Mr. Bush performed duty here. The latest records, released Wednesday night, show that he visited a dentist at Dannelly on Jan. 6, 1973.

Mr. Bush's spokesmen have previously said that Mr. Bush lived in Alabama from May to November 1972, and then moved to Houston when the election was over. But Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, said on Thursday that Mr. Bush recalled returning to Alabama for some of his Guard service even after he had moved to Houston.

Asked about the 16 members of the 187th who do not remember Mr. Bush serving in Alabama, Mr. McClellan responded that Mr. Bush's dental examination ''demonstrates that he was serving in Alabama.'' Mr. McClellan also said that at least two people recalled Mr. Bush serving in Alabama, among them Joe Holcombe, who worked on the Senate campaign with Mr. Bush, and Emily Marks Curtis, who has said she briefly dated Mr. Bush in Alabama.

Mr. McClellan pointed to an article in The Times Daily, an Alabama newspaper, in which Ms. Curtis was quoted as saying that ''the thing I know about George is that after the election was over in November, George left and he said he came back to Montgomery to do his Guard duty.''

But Ms. Curtis and Mr. Holcombe have also told reporters that they never actually saw Mr. Bush at Dannelly.

Mr. Bush's vague recollection of the type of work he might have been assigned at the 187th leaves open many possibilities. For example, he might have been sent to the supply squadron, which operated with about 100 Guard members in a building near the main hangar.

But Wayne L. Rambo, then a first lieutenant who supervised management procedures in the supply squadron, said he did not recall seeing Mr. Bush. Nor did Ernest G. Dismukes, then a master sergeant in the supply squadron. Nor did Joseph Chastain, a second lieutenant and supervisor in the supply squadron.

''I feel quite certain I would have remembered if he had worked with me,'' Mr. Chastain said.

The largest unit of the 187th was the maintenance squadron, with some 10 officers and 290 enlisted Guard members and mechanics. But several supervisors in the maintenance squadron said they did not recall seeing Mr. Bush.

''But he could have been here and made his drills and I wouldn't have known about it,'' said Billy C. Adams, then chief master sergeant in the maintenance squadron. ''Anyone who would call him AWOL -- unless they can prove it -- you should put them in jail.''

A few hundred more Guard members worked in the headquarters building. But Mr. Slauson, who worked full-time there, said he had no memory of Mr. Bush, as did Willard G. Hill, then a sergeant and supervisor in the personnel section.

''I've really thought about it, and I have to say I have no knowledge of him,'' Mr. Hill said.

The 187th also had a communications unit of about 30 members. But Emmett L. McCutchin, then captain and commander of the unit, said he had no memory of seeing Mr. Bush in 1972. ''But you know,'' he said, ''at that time who was George Bush?''

The closest any officer came to recalling Mr. Bush's presence at the 187th was Robert L. Ficquette, another captain and supervisor in the communications unit. ''I remember the name passing in front of me some way,'' he said, although he said he could not be sure when or how or why. But he, too, said he did not recall seeing Mr. Bush.

As a trained pilot, Mr. Bush might have been given tasks that brought him into contact with the 140 or so pilots, navigators and weapons systems officers of the 187th.

But George A. Garzon, then a captain and supervisor responsible for flight safety, had no recollection of Mr. Bush. ''I did not see him or remember him,'' Mr. Garzon said. ''But he could have been in and I didn't even know it.''

Four pilots and weapons system officers said much the same.

''I don't remember him being there,'' said Donald T. Sheridan, then a captain and weapons systems officer. ''But I can see where he could have very easily sat in the back of the room'' in a training session.

Another weapons system officer, Virgil A. Shewbart, a major in 1972, said, ''I didn't know him then, and I don't know him now.''

Several retired members of the 187th suggested that the most logical place for Mr. Bush was the operations center, where his pilot training could be put to good use processing flight plans and schedules. Indeed, this was the unit he was directed to report to in September 1972.

Mr. Garrett said that those who worked in the ''ops center'' were ''like a family.'' Would he remember if Mr. Bush had been assigned to work in his command post?

''I think I would have recalled somebody being set in there like that,'' he said. ''If I ever saw him, he never made an impression on me.''
 

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