The funny part is, that TV affiliate is in my former home town - which is Glen Reynold's current place of residence. Has Instapundit gone over to the dark side? Or does he simply find it difficult to watch local news coverage of things like busted water mains and the occasional barroom shooting?

Hmmm... I wonder why there hasn't been more on this?

Well, if someone can tip off Matt Margolis, 9/10 of all Bush bloggers will know about it.

Already did, Jordan. Which means if the story's bogus, I will have helped to discredit the blogosphere, and will hang my head in shame.

I'm sure Ed Morrissey's a Republican, and the MediaMatters opposition research goons will be dispatched to Knoxville, post haste.

Yeah, I just sent an e-mail to Matt as well. I hope that this isn't just partisan hemming and hawing.

Although, unlike CBS, I don't doubt that a debunking would go unacknowledged by most bloggers.

This fact has been out there for awhile, actually. Libs and the MSM just tune it out.

Ace--

Nope, we don't get to use this one.

Eyewitness testimony isn't going to prove anything. Is there a (non-forged) paper trail showing the President volunteered for SE Asia duty? If not, then there's no "there" here.

The MSM, by extensively relying on the testimony of liars, has "poisoned the well" for anyone to rely on personal testimony. Whereas I would normally believe a retired Colonel a priori, I can't be sure-- even if I did want to believe it.

My personal opinion? Occam's Razor makes me think Colonel Morrisey is telling the truth. Anyone willing to be a fighter pilot will also by necessity have an ego large enough to require stroking at some level.

Bush may have volunteered for the TANG in order to avoid getting drafted by a more combat-prone military service-- remember, entering the National Guard was a step taken by someone still respectful enough of the United States to avoid breaking the law or skipping to Canada. So, it's entirely plausible that young George Bush Jr. thought "Gee, I don't want to end up in the Army, but if I join up here I get to choose my duty."

It's not as "honorable" as eagerly volunteering for SE Asia duty from the get-go, but it's certainly more honorable than, say, protesting American policy from Oxford.

However-- bottom line-- Bush was a fighter pilot. Fighter pilots are eager to be tested and challenged (I know, I work with them daily). If given the opportunity to fly in combat AFTER he began spending time in the cockpit, I'd be surprised if Bush *didn't* volunteer for a tour. Something he obviously didn't do before-- but that was before he received his training, heard the stories of the Vietnam pilots rotating back, and oh yeah, obtained those massive ball-swingers called pilot's wings.

Cheers,
Dave

DAVE - Good post overall, but I disagree with your notion of a hierarchy of "honor". It mirrors the misconceptions of the typical media person never in the military.

Meaning:

1. The most "noble" soldiers were the ones that stepped into their recruiters office, volunteered, and demanded to get a spot where they could soon be in hand-to-hand combat with the evil Commie gooks. And did. And the nobleist of the noble were killed, or wounded getting a slew of combat medals. The absolute Pantheon of course, by media standards, being those who surrendered and "suffered as victims" by being POWs.

2. Those who were involuntarily drafted and otherwise participated as in #1.

3. Those who were in 'Nam - draftees and volunteers - but were in the cowardly 60% of the 2.3 million that served there that were never in harm's way.

4. The shirkers who volunteered for active duty, but avoided real soldiers duty by not being in 'Nam combat. Who served in the so-called "Cold War" where they moved their tanks, aircraft carriers, and AF bases around against the phantom "Soviet Union & allies" in order to avoid real service. Also including the draftees send to non-Vietnam posts. Most of the 16 million who "served", if you can call it that, in the Vietnam era.

5. Those who had student and other deferements, but at least exercised their conscience and marched against the evil, racist LBJ-Nixon War.

6. Those who excercised their conscience by fleeing to Canada.

7. Lowest of the low, those who avoided real service by going in the Guard. Where they did cushy easy things like flying fighter jets and intercepting the phantom menace Soviet and Cuban aircraft in the so-called Cold War.

Hence the media's conclusion that Kerry served, but Bush didn't. Hence the losers who believe that they will get more respect from others viewing their dead-end life - by claiming to be a combat-weary Navy SEAL who fought in 'Nam than what they were - some PFC in Bavaria at the time. Hence politicians like Sen Harkin lying about "being there".

Cedarford--

Apologies, apologies-- I didn't mean to imply that *I* believe there is a heirarchy of honor (hence my scare quotes around "honorable"). I was looking at it from the media viewpoint, which does believe there's a heirarchy (at least when said heirarchy is advantageous as a metric).

Poor phrasing on my part-- I agree with your points, 100%.

Trust me, I have nothing but the utmost respect for the men and women who put on our uniform, until they do something that forfeits said respect (Abu Ghraib, testifying to the Senate that your "band of brothers" were nothing but murderers and rapists, etc.-- you know, that sort of thing).

Cheers,
Dave

The bigger kicker is this isn't news

Go to www.vets4bush.com and 2 Guardsmen who served with Bush wrote articles on Bush and his service and the one mentions that Bush signed up for combat duty but that the military had decided the planes he was training on weren't suitable for Nam though other Air Force Guard units were being deployed

I think a journalist named Byron York wrote a detailed article in defence of Bush's military record.....

yet the Navy did decide to proceed to investigate the third citation on Kerry's Silver Star - no doubt because the Former Secretary of the Navy, a Democrat, John Lehman says he neither wrote that citation nor signed so - oh could be have another forgery on our hands, could it be Mr. Kerry got "preferential treatment" himself of the not so legal kind........you'd think that would be something the MSM could sink their teeth into, another forged document swirling in Mr. Kerry's vicinity

no doubt of course the Navy won't finish its investigation until after the election......well as long as they do, and maybe President or Senator Kerry can face his first scandal in office

Don't know where I saw it, sorry but apparently someone reviewed the stats, you had a two and half times greater chance of being killed as an National Guard fighter pilot than a Swift Boat soldier deployed in Vietnam

Hey everybody, I did some more research on my post and learned quite a bit - this story has indeed been out there for a long time, as indicated by a Washington Post piece from 1999. My original post has been updated to reflect this research. The story sounds pretty solid to me.

A few opinions, freely offered. I'm braced for a backlash:

a) W's TANG command was a campaign unit, made up of the well-to-do and well-connected, including members of the Dallas Cowboys who needed to meet military requirements but still be available for Sunday games. Given the relative safety of that TANG unit--that the F-102 wasn't even part of the active Vietnam War inventory--it would take some heavy-duty influence to even get into that unit. This does not speak well of W's bravery and especially of his likelihood to volunteer for combat. Flying a fighter jet *is* dangerous; flying one over the Gulf Coast is much safer than over a war zone.

b) The USN did review the circumstances of Sen. Kerry's medals and found nothing improper. Both the review and the timing of the review both smell of partisanship and not of any legitimate investigation. An investigation of W's record would also be partisan but would be more legitimate due to the incompleteness of the records--how many times have the DoD and/or the Bush campaign announced that all records were released only to later release more?--and the obvious gaps of service, the failure to take a flight physical and the granting of an honorable discharge where is probably was not earned.

c) Also, in re wannabe's post about the Navy's investigation into Kerry's Silver Star: If you want people to take your words seriously don't make obvious mistakes. Former Navy Sec John Lehman for Reagan was never a Democrat and sat on the 9/11 Commission as a Republican.

"W's TANG command was a CHAMPAGNE unit". Yes, I understand the irony of using the wrong word. Mea culpa. The stand by my post.

Nittany - You confuse degree of difficulty, in your champagne "toasts". Being a Marine is tough. Being Marine Recon is far tougher. To "duck out" of the 2-year Draft, Dubya had to serve 21 months of full-time active duty, then the equivalent of over a full year in days on duty in the National Guard - based on his points. Along the way, if he failed to get his wings, as 30-35% of candidates did, he would have to go on active duty and serve at least 4 years.

And, while Kerry is the only SwiftBoat Vet known to have cut short his 1-year tour by means other than being KIA or suffering a disabling wound - Bush volunteered for Vietnam duty, was turned down, and stayed flying the most dangerous production fighter the AF ever had.

Kerry, head of the Yale Political Union, initially tried to get a draft deferment to do graduate study in Paris in Politics. Being turned down, he got a spot in the Naval Reserve, perhaps with a tad of influence. But drats! The Navy started sucking up Reservists on call-ups, and Kerry found himself on a tin can Frigate. Not glamorous, not good for his political ambitions. So he volunteered for Swift Boats, which would be sorta like his idol JFK's PT109, remove him from being some scut-work officer at the beck and call of Lifer Navy sorts who were his lessors, socially speaking.

And it was so safe when he first said Swift Boats were for him! Yep, that's the ticket! Coastal patrol, not a single KIA in 3 years! But then he found the idiots above him were sending him into rivers! With jungles 20 feet away that could be hiding other social lessors with AK-47s!

Perhaps garnishing some medals and bringing a movie camera recording his heroic "combat" recreations would compensate for his being so inconvenienced! But a whole year????? Too much. Time to move on for the sake of John Forbes Kerry. And 3 band-aid wounds, something no other Swiftie did, did the trick. Returning stateside, seeing that medals honorably or ill-gained didn't amount to a pile of Boston Beans in Massachussets, Kerry recreated himself as the "Anti-War, Anti-Hero" and became nationally famous as the media swooned over this preppie with medals who clearly wasn't one of those "hippies".

It worked like a charm. Got him fame, financiers, and into the pants of Hollywood starlets and heiresses.

Meanwhile in the same early 70's, Dubya was drinking hard, flying jets, bedding down big-titted Texans, and thinking about getting out of the Guard so he could move on with his life.

Meanwhile in the same early 70's, Dubya was drinking hard, flying jets, bedding down big-titted Texans, and thinking about getting out of the Guard so he could move on with his life.

Very, very well said. Seriously.

Now the asshole's still drinking hard, not flying jets, bedding down small-titted Laura, and thinking about ways to fuck up everybody else's life.

Blogfather points out this story that has some similar content.

Glavin said, "When we had to sit alerts, there were two pilots, and two crew chiefs that sat out in the alert barn. George was like everybody else, except while George was over in a corner reading somebody's autobiography, the rest of us were watching Hee Haw."

"and thinking about ways to fuck up everybody else's life."

Specifically, how has he fucked up your life?

Ah. Was going to mention that this isn't precisely a "scoop": the informations been out on blogs for several years now, but - I see that Johnny Walker Red and Palooka beat me too it.

You'll have to point me in the direction of the proof that W even volunteered for combat duty. I seem to remember the "Do not volunteer for combat" box being checked on the records he's released publicly. Meanwhile, Kerry did volunteer, did take fire, did get hit and now he's being framed as the anti-American coward. Let's not forget that it took a lot of courage to publicly stand up to a sitting president and take on the war itself. True, it may have lead to him bedding Hollywood starlets (I don't know if it did, but I'd say yes if one offered herself to me as I'm sure most here would) but sex couldn't be the main reason given all the big-titted Texans W was enjoying. Also, it's interesting to see how both men positioned themselves after they're Reserve strategies played out: Kerry got closer to (and eventually into) the war, W bailed out, most likely illegally, to avoid the bloodshed. Even W's critics give him too much credit; "desertion" is the more accurate term than "AWOL" given his gaps in service and blowing off his flight physical but AWOL is more commonly used.

There will probably not be much, if any, paperwork on his trying to volunteer for Palace Guard. If the 111th worked like any of the military units I've been in, it went like this:

2LT Bush- Sir, I heard about this Palace Guard rotation to Vietnam, and I'd like to do it.

Commander- How many hours do you have?

2LT Bush- 350 or so.

Commander- You're not experienced enough yet, have to have 500 hours in type. Don't slam the door on the way out.

Nittany - "I seem to remember the "Do not volunteer for combat" box being checked on the records he's released publicly."

There's no such thing. You're probably thinking of the "Volunteer for Overseas Duty" box. So what. He was in the National Guard - that box was probably checked as a matter of course.

My guess is that preference didn't mean a thing unless an assignment came down to a choice between two candidates of equal rank and skill level. If you're the only person eligible and available for an overseas duty assignment, all of your protestations and checked boxes against going are going to be trumped by "needs of the service." They'll send you if they have to.

President Bush's not volunteering for overseas duty is a red herring thrown up by people who simply don't know how the system works.

poker me up