http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28838-2004Feb10.html
White House Releases Bush's Military Records
By Lois Romano and Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, February 10, 2004; 4:00 PM
The White House today released records of President Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard and said they show that he was paid--and therefore was in service--during a year when his presence at drills has not been publicly documented.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said the records "show that he was paid for his service, and you get paid for the days on which you serve."
"It showed that he fulfilled his duties," McClellan said. "There are some that have made outrageous accusations, and I think you need to ask those individuals if they want to continue to stand by those outrageous accusations in the face of documentation that clearly demonstrates the president fulfilled his duties."
The documents released today include an Air Force personnel record card for Bush from May 27, 1972, until May 26, 1973, and a summary prepared by the Defense Financing Accounting Service that shows what days Bush served in 1972 and 1973. Neither of those documents had been released before by Bush. In addition, an Air Force record for annual point summaries was given to reporters that shows dates on which service was performed. A portion of that record had been released before.
At issue is a 12-month period, commencing in May 1972, when Bush moved to Alabama to work on a senatorial campaign. He received permission to transfer to an Alabama unit and was instructed to report to duty there. But until the release of today's information, there had been no evidence that Bush reported to the Alabama unit to perform drills; Bush has said he did report and perform drills.
The records indicate that between May 1972 and May 1973, Bush served 14 days -- two days in October, four days in November, six days in January and two days in April. The White House offered no indication of why there was a gap in Bush's service from April to October, 1972.
A statement by retired Lt. Col. Albert C. Lloyd, also released today by the White House, says the documents show that Bush had a "satisfactory year for retirement/retention" in both 1972 and 1973 and "completed his military obligation in a satisfactory manner." Lloyd, who reviewed some records for the Bush during the 2000 campaign, served as a personnel officer for the Texas Air National Guard from 1969 to 1995.
There is no indication, however, what duties Bush performed on those 14 days.
In addition, according to the documents, Bush was performing service or unit drills in early 1973, at a time when his commanding officers wrote that they could not evaluate him because "he has not been observed" at Ellington Air Force base in Houston.
No one who served in Bush's Alabama unit at that time has come forward, despite years of publicity on the subject, to confirm the president's assertions about his service. The brigadier general Bush was to report to in Alabama has said he has no recollection of Bush's doing so.
Bush left the Guard in October 1973 to attend Harvard Business School.
Defense Department officials said yesterday that they had requested Bush's payroll records from his service in the National Guard be sent to Washington from a DOD archive in Colorado.
Bush, in an interview shown Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," said he would release all his records, including pay stubs, to put to rest political suggestions that he may not have fulfilled his duty . The president also suggested there might not be anything in the records that has not already been in the public domain.
"I mean, people have been looking for these files for a long period of time, trust me, and starting in the 1994 campaign for [Texas] governor," Bush said. "And I can assure you in the year 2000 people were looking for those files as well."
At a briefing today, McClellan, who rarely rebukes reporters, said firmly when a television correspondent continued asking about questions the records do not answer: "The president fulfilled his duties. And if you want to question other people who fulfill their duties, that's your prerogative. I won't."
McClellan was asked whether he would commit to making other relevant records available. "This is what we know that is available that exists," he said.
Administration officials have sought to portray the controversy as old news that was aired during Bush's first campaign for Texas governor and "it was a shame that this was brought up in 1994," McClellan said. "It was as shame that it was brought up in 2000. And it is a shame that it was brought up again."
McClellan said White House communications director Dan Bartlett received the information last night.
Bush enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard in 1968, two weeks before graduating from Yale and at the height of the Vietnam War.
Bush's service record was explored by the Democrats and the media in 2000 but received new attention recently, when Democratic National Committee Chairman Terence R. McAuliffe called Bush "AWOL" -- absent without leave -- during his time in Alabama.
