My Case in Defense of the Military Record of

George W. Bush

Yes this is a bit belated but I figure maybe critics of President Bush will stagger onto this and trip over the truth for once. Who knows but what they might even cut him some well deserved slack.

George W. Bush served in the USAF Texas Air Guard in the

period of May 28, 1968 to October 1, 1973.

He was trained for flight duties specific to flying the Convair F102, an interceptor aircraft. To understand why President Bush never flew in Vietnam you must also know the history of what he was trained to fly. The F102 was an aircraft that the Air Force used in the 1950's but were

phasing out in the 60's. The F102 saw limited duty in Vietnam being replaced with the F4 Phantom. As the Air Force phased out their own use of the F102 it reassigned many of them to Air Guard units in the U.S. This aircraft was tasked with defending the U.S. at the call from NORAD-scrambling to intercept prowling Russian Bear Bombers. That would be the mission to which President Bush was assigned. No Viet Nam service because there was no role for his aircraft. Even the President to be can not write a change to his assigned mission.

Now as to his early release from the Air Guard you once again have to follow the history of the aircraft he was tasked to fly. The F102 was being phased out at the time of his discharge in favor of the F101 Voodoo and then the F4. To fly those would require additional retraining and the military was under pressure from a post Viet Nam era to cut back costs. His discharge was actually in the best interest of the service.

There has been must ado over his miltary record containing N.O. in his evaluations. N.O. means the evaluating authority did not have sufficient information on which to base an evaluation-it has nothing to do with being absent. President Bush served his nation and Air Guard of Texas with honor and should be respected for that. Just as he would serve our nation as President-he did so with honor.