Bush’s Record in the Guard

All that President Bush’s Air National Guard payroll records prove is that he got paid (Feb. 11). If the American people are gullible enough to think that everyone who receives a government check is actually working, then we deserve a president who didn’t fulfill his military duty, couldn’t get into Yale on his own, was denied admittance to a second-tier Texas law school and ran two oil companies into financial insolvency. Strong leadership does not come from weak-minded beneficiaries.

Douglas L. Hall

Los Angeles

Thirty-six years ago I was a weekend warrior at the Los Alamitos Naval Air Station. I can remember the names of my chief, my yeoman and my bunkmates. Yet Bush can’t even remember the name of his wingman while he supposedly was in the Air National Guard?

Jeff Bucher

Pismo Beach, Calif.

What hypocrisy! Sen. John Kerry was a Vietnam War protester right alongside Hanoi Jane Fonda, but suddenly the subject of Vietnam is OK and he doesn’t mind talking ad nauseam about his being a veteran while questioning Bush’s integrity on his stint in the Guard. Do these Democrats have no shame? Guess not!

Bob Franz

Placentia

The Bush administration had no problem changing the justification for invading Iraq after failing to find weapons of mass destruction; why is it so flustered over reports about his Air National Guard service? Surely it can rewrite history again. Why not award him a retroactive medal, for being the first stealth fighter pilot?

Jay Labinger

Claremont

Why did Bush join the Guard? There was nothing doing in his then-life that was driving him to national service. Commissions in the Air National Guard were high privileges at that time.

He clearly joined for the purpose of avoiding service in Vietnam, and when he was out of danger, the Guard meant little. With that record, what a sight it was to see this man strutting in flight garb on an aircraft carrier just as though he’s one of the warriors, or to hear him say, “Bring ‘em on!”

Edward Mulvaney

Pasadena

Typically smooth-brained civilians passing judgment on the military (“Guard Stint a Sweet Deal for Fortunate Son,” letters, Feb. 8). They ignore the fact that many units in ‘Nam were Guard/reserve, similar to all post-WWII extended combat. And they are so typically ostrich-headed that they won’t know that the F-102, which Bush flew, wasn’t used in ‘Nam at that time.

But what would I know? I’ve only served on active duty, in the reserves and in the Guard.

John Hardison

Corona

Bush has stated that he “worked out an agreement” with the Guard to avoid his last eight months’ service so he could go to Harvard Business School. So now we have an admission that indeed he did avoid part of his obligation. Interesting that during a period of war when he “patriotically” served his country, he found a way to skip serving.

He states he would have gone to Vietnam if his unit had been called up. How? He had bargained his way out of the service.

Why didn’t he simply move his service to a Guard unit in the vicinity of Harvard? I’m sure they would have welcomed a fully trained pilot. I served in the Army during the Korean War and I don’t recall that the Department of Defense considered time off to attend school an option. I wonder what response our guardsmen now serving in Iraq would get if they asked for time out to attend school.

Raymond Malispina

Sonora, Calif.

The Republican answer to questions about Bush’s service record is that he was honorably discharged, therefore he must have served honorably. What military commander in the Texas Air National Guard is going to give a dishonorable discharge to the son of a U.S. congressman from Houston serving on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, which regulates oil subsidies and tax credits?

E. Anthony Pisarz

Norwalk

Doesn’t anybody else find it the least bit hypocritical that so many of the same people who were spitting on Vietnam veterans in the 1960s are now spitting on Bush because he wasn’t one of them?

Burt Prelutsky

North Hills