Bush's Guard Service Summary
President Bush's military records are creating such a stir, we thought we'd try and find a concise summary of what happened and what the issue is. MSNBC has this version:
George W. Bush was sworn into the Texas Air National Guard on May 27, 1968 during the height of the Vietnam War. He went through all of the basic and advanced flight training and received a commission as a second lieutenant. He then went about his business as a private citizen attending monthly and any other special "camps" for training.
In 1972, then-citizen Bush got a job working on a U.S. Senate campaign in Alabama and he looked into attending Guard meetings with a unit in Montgomery, Ala. A Lt. Colonel Lott sent Bush a letter informing him when the meetings were scheduled for the Alabama unit in October and November.
The controversy: Was Bush was absent without leave or AWOL from the Alabama Air National Guard during those 2 months in 1972?
If Bush attended a meeting in Alabama, the paymaster there would have noted it and sent the information onto Texas on an "IBM 105" card where it would be recorded and sent onto payroll in Colorado. Bush has released payroll records showing he received credit for attending meetings during the 2 months in 1972. But, they don't show where he attended meetings. He was living in Alabama at the time, but there are no Alabama records to show he attended meetings there.
Here's the timeline, from the same article:
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