Finally, somebody asks the right question

I'm watching Fox and Friends this morning, and finally I saw someone ask the right question about President Bush being able to get into the guard as a pilot. They were also asking the right person, Col. Earl Lively (Ret), Texas Air National Guard. Col. Lively was the Director of Operations for the TANG at the time. Here is a transcript of the question and the answer:

E.D. Hill: One of the other claims is that President Bush, because of his connections, was able to, in essence, jump in front of hundreds of applicants. Now, you were the head of the Texas National Guard at that time. Did a significant number of people meet the requirements for the physical, educational, and security needs to even apply for the specific position that Bush took?

Col. Lively: No. Actually, I wasn't the head of the Air National Guard. But I was the head of Operations. I was Director of Operations and I oversaw and inspected all of the units in Texas. Flew with them. And the, there was no waiting list for this. See, this is often confused with another thing. Which was a waiting list to simply enlist in the Guard and do your service their rather than in the regular military. And there were lots of people on those waiting lists. But those people weren't qualified to go to pilot training school.

Now, in the course of reading all this stuff, I discovered that Lt. Bush took the Air Force Pilot and Officer examinations while he was still at Yale finishing up. So obviously he was looking for a place to be a pilot.

And, the personnel. Some of the distortion on this came out four years ago when this story first surfaced, because some people had been in personnel in the Air National Guard, including lower ranking officers in my headquarters gave improper information to the Los Angeles Times, who had come out with the original story. And the Times reporter reported erroneous information - not his fault but theirs.

E.D. Hill: So there was no waiting list? Therefore there was no list - people he could have jumped in front of?

Col. Lively: Well, there was a long waiting list to just simply enlist in the Guard as a basic airman. But to go in as an officer and go off to flying training. You don't go to Air Force Pilot training unless you really want to fly. Number one, you have to risk your life to do it.

Contrast this with the coverage the New York Times gave Ben Barnes, who said he got Bush into the Guard:

"I'm not particularly proud of what I did," said Mr. Barnes, who in the 1960's was speaker of the Texas House at 26 and lieutenant governor at 30. "While I understand why parents wanted to shield their sons from danger, I abused my position of power by helping only those who knew me or had access to me."

Mr. Barnes, 66, an adviser to Senator John Kerry's campaign and an influential lobbyist with offices in Austin and Washington, said in a interview with The New York Times that he had intervened to get Mr. Bush, as well as other well-connected young men, into the Guard in 1968. He made similar comments on "60 Minutes" on Wednesday.

Mr. Barnes maintained, as he has since 1999, that he had contacted his friend who headed the Texas Air National Guard, Brig. Gen. James Rose, not at the behest of anyone in the Bush family, but rather a Houston businessman, Sidney A. Adger, a friend of the Bushes who has died.

"Yes, I called Rose to get George Bush into the Guard, I've said that," Mr. Barnes said in his office last week in Austin. "I called Rose for other sons of prominent families, and I'm not proud of it now."

Did the vaunted New York Times even bother to ask is their WAS a waiting list for Texas Air National Guard pilots? Or are they, along with plenty of other ignorants, just assuming that there was?

Maybe the Times should have bothered to ask someone who was in a position to actually know, rather than a top Kerry fundraiser.

Comments

[JasonN]

You expect too much from the Times. What do you think they have, journalists?

[keto11]

Stop deluding yourself. The bottom line is that Bush used his connections to avoid going to the bloodbath in southeast asia. Ditto with Dick "4 deferments" Cheney. I don't blame 'em, frankly.

A quote from the transcript above:
"Number one, you have to risk your life to do it."
Flying jets is dangerous, granted. But, how many active Texas Guardmen died during the Vietnam war? Compared to being drafted, the risk was nominal.

[Blind Pig]

I don't know about how many TANG personnel were killed during the Vietnam war. I do know that 24 pilots were killed in training accidents in the F-102 during the Vietnam war.

How many Swift Boat commanders were killed during the Viet Nam War?

I've still seen nothing that establishes that Bush was given preferrential treatment to get into the Guard. As a matter of fact, the person in charge of pilot selection for the TANG, Col. Staudt, has stated that no pressure was put on him.

You have an assumption which is not supported by the facts.

[Robert A. 'HawkEye' ROGERS]

In addition to my being an ANG F-86 and F-100 Mission Pilot - I was also an ANG Squadron Operations Officer.
What the readers here need to recognize is our 2000 FOIA research did NOT 'primary source' confirm the length of the waiting list for already commissioned TX ANG PILOT slots.
However, this is a bit of an academic point -in the since that PILOT slots to AF Flight School were open ONLY to applicants who were ALREADY trained as 2nd LT Officers.
In Bush's case he 'qualified' because a three-senior-officer TX ANG Review Board offered him a 2nd LT commission - without an ounce of Officer Training. He only received six weeks of E-1 Basic Airman 'boot camp' training - before receiving his 2nd LT commission.
This form of receiving a commision was NOT out of the ordinary - for scarce, short-supply already-trained professionals like Dr's, surgeons, and lawyers.
In Bush's case - just another example of the 'preferential treatment'he received during his abbreviated ANG pilot career.

'HawkEye' Rogers
coauthor/coresearcher of the Oct. 4, 2000 expose -Internet searchable as -
"The Smoking Jet"
Oakton, NoVA

[Blind Pig]

Sure, don't let the fact that every TANG officer who was in on the selection process saying that there was no waiting list fool you.

Psssssst. Look behind you. I think you missed another straw you could be grasping.