More of Bush’s National Guard Records Discovered

The Pentagon on Friday released newly discovered documents that administration officials said provided further evidence that the president fulfilled his duties as an officer in the Texas Air National Guard while on temporary assignment in Alabama more than 30 years ago.

Payroll records show that he wasn’t paid for the five months in 1972 when he was assigned to an Alabama guard unit, indicating that he didn’t show up for duty. But the same records show that he wasn’t required to attend because he had already accumulated enough credits to meet his obligation for that year.

Questions about Bush’s military service in Alabama had touched off allegations by Democrats and other critics that the young Bush had gone AWOL during this period. He had moved to Alabama to work on the Senate campaign of a friend of his father, then the chairman of the Republican National Committee.

It seemed unlikely that the payroll records would put to rest questions about Bush’s National Guard experience.

The Democratic National Committee called the “supposed discovery” of Bush’s payroll records “highly questionable.”

“If the Bush administration continues to search, maybe they’ll find answers to the long list of unanswered questions that remain about George W. Bush’s time in the Air National Guard. Bush’s military records seem to show up as randomly as he did for duty,” said DNC spokesman Jano Cabrera.

Bryan Hubbard, spokesman for the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, said the new material was located this month by a technician in a military payroll center in Denver. The discovery occurred just days after the Pentagon announced that Bush’s payroll records had been inadvertently destroyed in the mid-1990s.

Hubbard said the records show that Bush, a pilot in the Air National Guard, accumulated enough points by performing Guard duty between October 1971 and April 1972 that he was not required to perform any more service through the rest of 1972.

In May of that year, Bush transferred to Alabama to work as an aide to Republican Winton “Red” Blount, and the new records show he was not paid for the rest of that year. Though officials said Bush was not required to show up for duty because he had enough points, several Alabama guardsmen have recalled seeing him there.

The issue of Bush’s military service has dogged him since his initial run for governor of Texas in 1994.

And Democrats this year are showcasing the difference between his service in Texas and that of Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, the presumed Democratic presidential candidate and a decorated Vietnam War hero.

Bush administration officials denied Friday that the release of the new records was timed to neutralize the issue on the eve of the Democratic National Convention, which begins Monday in Boston.

Rather, said Hubbard, the new records suddenly turned up and were promptly released pursuant to numerous Freedom of Information Act requests filed by reporters.

“These records could not be located in February” when those requests were filed, Hubbard said. “But our technician located a binder with a list of numbers on how the records were stored and realized that the previous records used incorrect locator numbers.

“These records show the duty he was paid for,” Hubbard said.

White House spokesman Trent Duffy said it was unfortunate these records had not been found earlier to dispel doubts about Bush’s military service.

An earlier release of the president’s military records did not include an accounting of his Alabama service, raising suspicions among Bush critics.

“It would have been preferable if these documents had been released at the same time as the others, but that’s just the way things happen sometime,” Duffy said.

“They are further confirmation that the president served and completed his military service and was proud to serve his country. He got an honorable discharge.”

The new records show that Bush was paid for performing a variety of duties with the Guard in the months before he moved to Alabama. He attended unit training assemblies, all-day drills and additional flying exercises. On some days, the new records state, he stayed long enough to collect two days of credit.

Most Guard members in Alabama have no memory of Bush showing up at the squadron where he was reassigned. But a few recalled him sitting around the Guard offices reading flight manuals and other training materials.

In contrast, Kerry enlisted in the Navy and volunteered for combat duty in Vietnam. In Southeast Asia he earned the Silver Star, a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts.

Kerry later turned against the war and became a leading anti-war protester.

But in his run for the presidency, he is highlighting his combat experience and medals, and in ads and stump speeches he is stressing the difference between his service commanding a gunboat in Vietnam and Bush’s with a state National Guard unit that was never called up for combat in Vietnam.