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A Daily Chronicle of Bush Administration Distortion September 8, 2004
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Report Shows Bush Was AWOL



Earlier this year, President Bush told the nation "I did my duty" in the National Guard in 1972 when he was supposed to report for service.1 But according to a major new report, that is not true.

As a new examination of documents by the Boston Globe shows, "Bush fell well short of meeting his military obligation." Twice during his Guard service - first when he joined in May 1968, and again before he transferred out of his unit in mid-1973 to attend Harvard Business School - Bush signed documents pledging to meet training commitments or face a punitive call-up to active duty. But "he didn't meet the commitments, or face the punishment, the records show."2

Bush also has claimed "I did show up in Alabama"3 in 1972 when he was supposed to report there for duty. But as the Globe notes, "Bush's service records do not show him logging any service in Alabama until October of that year." Furthermore, "even that service is in doubt" as "no one has come forward with any credible recollection of having witnessed Bush performing guard service in Alabama or after he returned to Houston in 1973."

A new group called Texans for Truth will begin airing 0:30 second television ads featuring a National Guardsman who in 1972 served in the very same Alabama unit Bush was supposed to have joined. That Guardsman testifies that he never saw Bush show up for service - a story corroborated by others. See the ad here.4



Sources:
  1. Transcript for Feb. 8th airing on "Meet the Press", MSNBC, 2/13/04.
  2. "Bush fell short on duty at Guard," Boston Globe, 9/08/04.
  3. Transcript for Feb. 8th airing on "Meet the Press", MSNBC, 2/13/04.
  4. TexansforTruth.com, 9/04.



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