Bush treated well in Guard

Records show favorable treatment.

Los Angeles Times

HOUSTON -- 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 who 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 other people, George W. Bush was soon in the Guard. He was sent to basic training and awarded a special commission that instantly made him a second lieutenant. An examination of nearly 200 pages of his service record obtained by the Los Angeles Times, plus interviews with Guard officials, veterans and military experts, shows that Bush received highly 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. 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 rarely were 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. Officials in Bush's presidential campaign denied last week that he was treated differently from other recruits. 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 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 didn't come to serve in America's least popular war. 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 down-sizing and there appeared to be no real task for him to perform. He was profiled glowingly in Guard news releases. Such releases weren't uncommon but were rarely so long and richly detailed. A Bush campaign spokesman said Bush's special commission and treatment in the Guard was "routine." "Our information is there was absolutely no special deal," said David Beckwith. He said transfers were available to Guard members and the news 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 near San Antonio. "There was no influence on his behalf. Neither his daddy nor anybody else got him into the Guard." Pilots were in demand in Vietnam. But Tom Hail, a historian for the Texas Air National Guard, said records don't show a pilot shortage in the Guard squadron at the time. 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, though, signing up didn't 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 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. 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 Reserve Officer Training Corps experience 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. 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 couldn't be located for interviews. 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 they searched but 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 direct appointments were rare and difficult 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," he said. "Then I got considered for a direct appointment." 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 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. 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, suspicions swirled around Guard units in many states, where politicians and powerful people lobbied to get favored applicants onto the rolls. 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. 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. Bush's class graduated in November 1969. Congressman Bush 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. After Bush left the Guard as a first lieutenant, he went to Harvard for a master's degree in business administration. He returned to Texas and, just like his father, plunged into the oil business.

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