WASHINGTON – The White House on Tuesday released summaries of President Bush’s Texas Air National Guard service records and pay documents, which the president’s spokesman said demonstrate that Bush fulfilled his Vietnam-era military obligations in the early ’70s.
The documents indicate Bush performed Guard service in the fall of 1972 and in early 1973, and show that he was paid for work during the period Democrats have alleged Bush shirked his service.
“When you serve, you are paid for that service,” White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. “These documents outline the days on which he was paid. That means he served. And these documents also show he met his requirements. And it’s just really a shame that people are continuing to bring this up. … These documents clearly show that the president fulfilled his duties.”
The documents, which include payroll sheets never before made public and summaries prepared by the Defense Financing Accounting Service, show that Bush was paid for dates in October and November 1972 and in January and April 1973. That spans a time – from May 1972 to May 1973 – when Bush was assigned to Guard units in Alabama and Houston and which has been the focus of Democratic critics.
But the records, which McClellan said are all the documents that the White House has, do not show the exact nature or whereabouts of Bush’s service. Military experts, including one cited by the White House, said such records should exist.
In addition, according to the new documents, Bush was performing service or unit drills at a time when his commanding officers in Houston had written in previously released national guard records that they could not evaluate him because “he has not been observed” at Ellington Air Force base in Houston. That report was signed by two officers on May 2, a day that the new documents show Bush was supposed to be performing service in Houston.
Bush enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard in 1968, two weeks before graduating from Yale and at the height of the Vietnam War. He trained as a pilot and flew out of Ellington up until April 1972.
At issue is a 12-month period, commencing in May 1972, when Bush moved to Alabama to work on a senatorial campaign. He received permission to transfer to an Alabama unit and was instructed to report to duty there.
Up until now, there has been no definitive evidence in his file that he ever reported to the Alabama unit to perform drills – and the officer to whom Bush was told to report, has said that he has no recollection Bush reported.
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