Bush Received Quick Air Guard Commission

On a Texas spring day during the height of the Vietnam War, a fresh-faced young man about to graduate from Yale University walked into the office of the commander of the Texas Air National Guard.

Col. Walter B. “Buck” Staudt listened to the 21-year-old, who had no military or aviation experience but seemed polite and presentable.

“He said he wanted to fly just like his daddy,” Staudt recalled.

The young man’s “daddy,” Staudt knew, was George Bush, then a Republican congressman from Houston and a former World War II bomber pilot.

Although getting into the state units was difficult for most others, Bush was soon in the Guard. He was sent to basic training and awarded a special commission making him an instant second lieutenant.

An examination of nearly 200 pages of his service record obtained by The Times, plus interviews with Guard officials, veterans and military experts, show that Bush, now 52 and governor of Texas, received favorable treatment and uncommon attention in his time in the Guard.

While there is no evidence of illegality or regulations broken to accommodate Bush’s entry and rise in the service, the documents do show that doors were opened and good fortune flowed to him at opportune times.

Officials in Bush’s presidential campaign denied last week that he was treated differently from other recruits.

When Bush was admitted into the Guard in 1968, 100,000 other men were on waiting lists around the country, hoping to win admission to similar units. The Guard was popular because those units were rarely sent to Vietnam.

He was able to jump into the officer ranks without the exceptional credentials many other officer candidates possessed. While Bush quickly won a place among the Guard’s elite fighter pilots, other young men who earned their wings first had to build up extensive military experience and aviation skills.

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Many of his former comrades and superiors in the Guard remember Bush as a bright young leader who worked hard. Echoing Bush’s own statements, they said that he would have gone to Vietnam had his Guard unit been called up.

Nevertheless, like many other politicians of his age, Bush, now the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, will be asked to explain how he did not come to serve in America’s least popular war. The issue has already come up, more or less good-naturedly. One of Bush’s rivals for the nomination, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has joked that as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam he slept more soundly knowing that Bush was defending the shores of Texas from invasion.

In addition to his special commission, the Guard gave Bush considerable flexibility and attention as he served out his military obligation, his records show.

He was allowed to transfer to the Alabama National Guard for three months in 1972 to work on the Senate campaign of a politician there. At the time, the Alabama unit was downsizing, and there appeared to be no real task for him to perform.

He was profiled glowingly in Guard press releases that bragged that Bush got “high” on flying for the Guard, a jibe against peers in the ‘60s counterculture. Guard press releases for members were not uncommon but were rarely so long and richly detailed.

At one point, Bush was suspended from flying after failing to “accomplish” the annual physical required of pilots. A Bush spokesman said that this occurred because Bush was in Alabama while his physician was in Houston.

A Bush campaign spokesman said that Bush’s special commission and treatment in the Guard were “routine.” “Our information is there was absolutely no special deal,” said spokesman David Beckwith.

He said that transfers were available to Guard members and that the press releases were only an attempt by state military officials to garner free publicity for the Guard.

“He was the son of a congressman, and they made him into a good guy,” Beckwith said.

Staudt, who retired in 1972 as a brigadier general, said Bush’s expedited acceptance into the Guard was justified by a shortage of volunteers to be pilots.

“Nobody did anything for him,” Staudt said in an interview at his home in New Braunfels, Texas, north of San Antonio. “There was no goddamn influence on his behalf. Neither his daddy nor anybody else got him into the Guard.”

Willie J. Hooper, a retired major who left the Texas Air National Guard in 1974 after 40 years of service, agreed. “He did the work. His daddy couldn’t do it for him,” Hooper said.

Pilots were in demand in Vietnam. But Tom Hail, a historian for the Texas Air National Guard, said that records do not show a pilot shortage in the Guard squadron at the time.

Hail, who reviewed the unit’s personnel records for a special Guard museum display on Gov. Bush’s service, said Bush’s unit had 27 pilots at the time he began applying. While that number was two short of its authorized strength, the unit had two other pilots who were in training and another awaiting a transfer. There was no apparent need to fast-track applicants, he said.

As for a direct commission for someone of Bush’s limited qualifications, Hail said, “I’ve never heard of that. Generally they did that for doctors only, mostly because we needed extra flight surgeons.”

In 1968, Bush was a senior majoring in history at Yale. That year, the North Vietnamese launched the Tet Offensive, sharply intensifying the war. College campuses in the United States, including Yale, became the scenes of growing student unrest.

With the draft sending eligible men overseas to fight, Bush joined a flood of young men seeking other options--a deluge that would continue for several years.

In 1969, Arkansas Rhodes scholar Bill Clinton offered to join a Reserve Officers Training Corps program, even though he had received an induction notice that made him ineligible to do so. His draft maneuvers got him a deferral but brought him harsh criticism when they were revealed during his 1992 run for president.

That same year, Indiana college student Dan Quayle sought out the Indiana National Guard and secured a headquarters position. George W. Bush opted for the Texas Air Guard.

Around the nation, the state militias were a particularly popular alternative to active duty--relatively safe, convenient and much less demanding. A volunteer, after completing his initial training, usually served just one weekend a month and a two-week period during the summer.

Explaining his choice to the Houston Chronicle earlier this year, Bush said: “I knew I was going into the military and would have liked to come out with a skill. Your options either were to avoid the draft or sign up, and I signed up.”

But for most, signing up did not mean getting accepted.

The Texas Air Guard had about 900 slots for pilots, air and ground crew members, supervisors, technicians and support staff. Sgt. Donald Dean Barnhart, who still serves in the Guard, said that he kept a waiting list of about 150 applicants’ names. He said it took up to a year and a half for one name to move to the top of the list.

“Quite a few gentlemen were wanting to get in,” he recalled.

For Bush, there was no wait. He met with commander Staudt in his Houston office and made his application--all before his graduation in June.

His records list no ROTC stint or engineering or aviation skills, which were considered desirable. In his application, he cited work experience as summer jobs and part-time employment as a messenger, a ranch hand, an oil field “roustabout,” a sporting goods salesman and a bookkeeper.

In contrast, a Guard publication from that time called “The Interceptor” trumpeted the extensive professional experience of the Guard’s pilots:

“Civilian jobs of the pilots range from a medical doctor and several lawyers, to self-employed businessmen, executives, salesmen, airline pilots, a college professor, NASA engineers and scientists, graduate students, and even a couple of oilmen.”

Nevertheless, Staudt classified young Bush as prime officer material.

“Applicant is a quiet, intelligent young man who has the interest, motivation and knowledge necessary to become a commissioned officer in today’s Air Force and Air National Guard flying programs,” Staudt wrote in a follow-up report.

In a separate report, Staudt added: “Bush meets all the requirements established for this appointment program.”

He recommended Bush for a direct appointment--a special process that would allow the young recruit to become a second lieutenant right out of basic training without having to go through the rigors of officer candidate school. The process also cleared the way for a slot in pilot training school.

In July of that year, an examining board approved the direct appointment, finding that Bush’s physical and moral characteristics were all “satisfactory.” Staudt was a member of that board. Its other two members could not be located for interviews.

“He got a direct appointment,” said Staudt, adding that the chain of command OKd the special commission. “It was [approved] by a committee. It was done by everybody, and everybody includes God.”

Staudt declined to estimate how many men received such special appointments.

The Times attempted to obtain copies of the written regulations that governed how enlistees became officers. Officials in Texas, at the Pentagon and other military installations said that they searched but ultimately were unable to find the old material. The special commission process was discontinued in the 1970s after the war ended, the officials said.

But Charles C. Shoemake, an Air Force veteran who later joined the Texas Air National Guard, eventually retiring as a full colonel, said that direct appointments were rare and hard to get, and required extensive credentials.

“I went from master sergeant to first lieutenant based on my three years in college and 15 years as a noncommissioned officer. Then I got considered for a direct appointment.”

Even then, he said, “I didn’t know whether I was going to get into pilot training.”

Guard documents from that time indicate that commissioned officers were supposed to have numerous specific qualifications. For the most part, Bush lacked them.

An Adjutant General’s Department manual listed a high school education, 18 months of military service, including six months of active duty, and completion of officer training.

A separate Guard pamphlet called “Take Command, Apply for OCS,” spelled out three ways for Guardsmen to become second lieutenants: a 23-week officer training program, a nine-week training “reserve component special officer candidate course” or completion of eight weekend drill periods and two summer camps.

The message of the documents was echoed by Bush’s peers: Becoming a Guard officer was supposed to be difficult, and for most, it was.

“You had to pass a lot of tests,” said Col. Ralph Anderson, who was in flight school with Bush and today commands a fighter wing in the Ohio National Guard. He applied to the Guard after serving in the regular Air Force. “I went through ROTC at Ohio University. I had to do all the Air Force qualification tests, and I had to go through a private pilot’s license program at Ohio University and pass a physical. And finally there was a selection board.”

Sgt. Barnhart said that, as a rule, Guard pilots were not created overnight. “It was extremely unusual to be a pilot straight into the Guard. Most of our pilots did not come fresh like that.”

Of Bush’s quick entry, Shoemake said: “His name didn’t hurt, obviously. But it was a commander’s decision in those days.”

Beckwith, Bush’s spokesman, painted a different picture. He said that the Guard needed pilots at the time and Bush was available. “A lot of people weren’t qualified” or willing to fly, he said, so special commissions were offered to those willing to undergo the extra training required.

But Shoemake, who also served as a chief of personnel in the Texas Guard from 1972 to 1980, remembers no pilot shortage. “We had so many people coming in who were super-qualified,” he said.

At the height of the war, controversy and suspicions swirled around Guard units in many states, where politicians and powerful people quietly lobbied to get favored applicants onto the rolls.

Texas was no different. “There were all sorts of different things that were going on,” recalls Ike Harris, a Republican who for 27 years was a member of the Texas Senate.

There is no sign that political influence helped Bush along. But for Guard officials, Bush was not just a face in the crowd.

(Staudt also was instrumental in getting another politician’s son into the Guard in 1968. He met Lloyd Bentsen III, who recently had graduated from Stanford University business school, at a party and told him he needed a financial officer. Bentsen’s father, later a Democratic U.S. senator from Texas and vice presidential candidate, denied intervening to help his son.)

Bush, after he completed basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, was promoted to second lieutenant in a ceremony in Staudt’s office. His father came down from Washington to pin the bars on his son that September, and the Bushes, along with Staudt and his wife, Georgia, posed for pictures.

In November, 2nd Lt. Bush went off for yearlong pilot training at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia. There he was assigned to the F-102, an interceptor aircraft that was being phased out of the regular Air Force and was unneeded in Vietnam. The Texas Guard had acquired the aircraft for maneuver exercises over the Gulf of Mexico.

Fellow pilot Jim Bath said that Bush’s colleagues were aware of the Bush pedigree but that 2nd Lt. Bush worked hard and earned the respect of his fellow aviators.

“I liked him a lot,” said Anderson. “He was a real outgoing guy, a good pilot and lots of fun. He was a leader. He took things on and got them done.”

Bush’s class graduated in November 1969. Rep. Bush, later to become president, came down to deliver the commencement address.

His son returned to Texas, first for air combat training school and then to fly weekend training missions. “Lt. Bush is a dynamic, outstanding young officer,” stated one of his performance reports. “He clearly stands out as a top notch fighter interceptor pilot.”

The Guard sent out press releases touting the young Bush’s success story.

“George Walker Bush is one member of the younger generation who doesn’t get his kicks from pot or hashish or speed,” said therelease announcing his first F-102 solo flight in 1970. “Oh, he gets high, all right, but not from narcotics.”

The release also quoted Bush. The solo flight “was really neat,” he said. “It was fun, and very exciting. I felt really serene up there.”

The release added: “Lt. Bush is the son of U.S. Representative George Bush, who is a candidate for the U.S. Senate seat of Senator Ralph Yarborough. The elder Bush was a Navy . . . pilot. Lt. Bush said that his father was just as excited and enthusiastic about his solo flight as he was.”

Beckwith, the Bush campaign spokesman, said that other guardsmen, including several Dallas Cowboy football players, were highlighted in press releases.

Bush, he added, “because of his circumstances, made an ideal subject for National Guard publicity.”

In the fall of 1972, Bush asked for a three-month transfer to the Alabama Guard, where he wanted to work on the Senate campaign of Republican candidate Red Blount. His letter to his commanding officer was signed simply “George.”

The request was approved, even though the comparable unit in Alabama seemed to be phasing out.

“The continuation of this type of unit is uncertain at this time,” Lt. Col. Reese H. Bricken advised Bush.

“We may last three months, six months, a year or who knows! With this in mind, if you are willing to accept assignment under these circumstances, welcome! We are glad to have you.”

Beckwith said that the transfer was for “equivalent duty,” adding that it was appropriate because political work was Bush’s equivalent of a civilian job.

After Bush left the Guard as a first lieutenant, he went to Harvard for a master’s in business administration.

But soon enough he returned to Texas and, just like his father, plunged into the oil business.

Said Jim Bath, one of young Bush’s fellow pilots:

“In Texas, we’re knee-deep in the sons of the great. But they don’t get a free ride because of who their dad was. It gets you the opening. But after that, you have to perform.”

Times researchers Lianne Hart, John Beckham and Edith Stanley contributed to this story.