WASHINGTON — The White House on Wednesday night released a document showing that President Bush appeared at a military base in Alabama during the last year of his National Guard service, but aides backed away from his weekend pledge to release all his military records.
Bush’s staff provided copies of a one-page record of a dental exam, complete with drawings of the president’s teeth, that showed he was at Dannelly Air National Guard base in Montgomery, Ala., on Jan. 6, 1973.
The document is the first definitive evidence that Bush showed up at a base of the Alabama National Guard during a period of about 11 months, from May 1972 to May 1973, for which it was unclear how the president had fulfilled his military service. Earlier this week, the White House released records showing Bush had been paid for days of service during that period, including the date of the dental exam. But the records did not say where Bush had been.
The White House released the records this week in an effort to end a controversy that has put White House aides on the defensive amid Democratic accusations that Bush shirked his duty. Administration officials refused Wednesday to commit to releasing further records, despite a statement by Bush on NBC’s "Meet the Press" that he would open his entire military file.
Bush enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard in 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War, and became a first lieutenant and an F-102 fighter pilot before leaving in 1973 to attend Harvard Business School. Bush has said that during the disputed period in 1972 and 1973, he performed temporary duty in Montgomery while he was working on a U.S. Senate campaign. His records for that period have indicated that he no longer took military physicals and was suspended from flying.
Administration officials confirmed Wednesday that the Department of Defense is in the process of pulling together all of the president’s payroll, personnel and medical records from the National Guard to centralize his file. This would include files from the Air Reserve Personnel Center in St. Louis and Denver, as well as financial records from Defense Financing Accounting Service in Denver.
Communications director Dan Bartlett said the White House expects much in the file to already be in the public domain, but added that anything new concerning Bush’s attendance in Alabama would be released. But Bartlett — like McClellan — was emphatic that the White House had no immediate plans to open Bush’s entire file, which would include his Guard medical records.
Over the past four days, a controversy that Bush’s aides thought had been left in his pre-presidential past has mushroomed into a test of his credibility and his staff’s crisis management skills. It comes as he is preparing to possibly take on Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., a swift boat officer in Vietnam who received a Silver Star, Bronze Star with Combat V, and three awards of the Purple Heart for his service in combat, in this year’s general election campaign.
In an interview aired Sunday on "Meet the Press," moderator Tim Russert reminded Bush that when Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark were challenged on their military records during their presidential campaigns, "they opened up their entire files." "Would you agree to do that?" Russert asked. "Yeah," Bush replied.
During a televised briefing, McClellan was read that exchange and asked if that was still the White House position. "The specific question was about service, whether or not he had served in the military, if you go back to look at the context of the discussion," he replied. "And the president said, if we have them, we’ll release them, relating to that issue. We have released what additional documents came to our attention."
During his briefing Tuesday, McClellan repeatedly held up 13 pages that he said "clearly document the president fulfilling his duties in the National Guard." The papers included a summary of dates on which Bush was credited for performing service and was given points that the Guard uses for retirement and pay purposes. The sheaf included copies of microfiche payroll records that showed Bush was compensated for service in a portion of the period in question.
More indications emerged Wednesday that some details of Bush’s service may never be known. Lt. Col. Robert Horton, a spokesman for the Alabama National Guard, said Wednesday that no records exist in Alabama that would confirm Bush’s temporary duty in Montgomery in 1972. Horton said there are no requirements to maintain records for a unit member who is on temporary assignment.
Horton said that a "certificate of training" would have been sent back to Houston — where Bush was assigned — so the Texas Air National Guard could keep a record of the points Bush received for his drills in Alabama and pay him accordingly.
Although the White House has been unable to produce peers from Bush’s service in Alabama, critics emerged from all quarters. Bill Burkett, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Texas National Guard, said in an interview with The Washington Post this week that he overheard a speaker-phone call about Bush’s National Guard file in 1997, when Bush was Texas governor. Burkett said he was in a National Guard office when he overheard Joseph M. Allbaugh, then Bush’s chief of staff, tell an officer in reference to Bush’s military file that he "needed to make sure there was nothing to embarrass the governor."
Burkett said he later witnessed some items from Bush’s file in the trash. Bush officials and Allbaugh denied these allegations. Bartlett called them "outrageous."
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