AWOL story CONFIRMED? (by a DUer)

[nostamj]

this is from LBN but I thought the GD crew would be VERY interested in this development... (:thumbsup: to rawstory!)

*****WORLD EXCLUSIVE***** http://rawstory.com

By John Byrne | Raw Story Editor

Lawrence J. Korb, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower, Reserve Affairs, Installations and Logistics under Ronald Reagan from 1981-1985, confirmed RAW STORY's legal analysis of President Bush's Guard Service in a telephone call Friday afternoon.

The analysis, which proves that President George W. Bush was absent without leave from the Texas Air National Guard in 1972, is available here: http://www.bluelemur.com/index.php?p=172

Given proof that Bush missed five months of Guard training sessions, he said that Bush would be considered AWOL. "If you don't show up, you're absent without leave, by definition," Korb said.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=718083&mesg_id=718083

[zaj]

1. Can someone explain this comment?

Or dismiss it?

Is this claim accurate? What about in 196x when Bush was in the guard?

"In the Air Guard if you don't make the assigned drill you have 1 month to make it up if you want to get paid for it. After that you have 1 year to make it up, but it will be unpaid, thus there would be no pay stubs."
-- Taken from a discussion I was having on another board

[Bandit]

8. I don't know about Texas but in Alaska in 1967 if you missed three meeting

you were activated into the regular army with a two year committment. I have a very close friend that this happened to. He had served six long years and had only three meetings left to attend and he skipped them. He was immediately drafted into the army and sent straight to Vietnam. He was not given any opportunity to make up those meetings. He is alive and well today thank God but not for the likes of GW Bush*.

[nostamj]

2. better subject line?

or, nobody's interested...

[iconoclastic cat]

4. Yep, I read it.

I hope this story doesn't vanish!

[vetwife]

22. Should the campaign he worked on not have pay recordsor attendance

or has everone there been paid off too! I mean My God...He was somewhere unless he was beamed to Pluto and someone had to see him somewhere. I read in Fortunate son he was doing Community Service. There should be a record there. Somebody out there knows where Bush was for those months.

[iconoclastic cat]

23. Rehab?

/half-joke

[nomaco-10]

7. The topics that interest people

have changed significantly around here in case you haven't noticed.
Now, if you'd have posted a thread that mentioned the Kerry Women Are Hot in your subject title or something to that effect of "Aren't you glad you figured out how wrong you were not to support Kerry from the beginning" you would have had 50 replies by now.

I just left LBN and there wasn't even mention of the number three story on Yahoo about soldiers in Iraq told to cover up "bridge incident".

Things have definitely changed around here.

[Catch22Dem]

12. Folks are just on a temporary high

Please don't begrudge them that. This is one step along the way we've all worked hard for. I understand there is always REAL news, but folks are just energized. Please don't belittle their joy.

[nostamj]

16. i know, i know...

a Blumenthal column with get four hits while balloons get forty threads... ah, that is GD... now off to find the TOONs thread again...

[iconoclastic cat]

24. I agree with Catch22Dem: I need to roll in joy for a little while.

I can only take so much horror and despair, nomaco.

[iconoclastic cat]

25. Also, quite often, I read LBN stories, but I don't write responses.

I usually open up the original and read it there, and then I come back to DU and hunt for more news.

[Joanne98]

3. Rawstory is DU's newest star. What a catch.

I just hope he doesn't come here, make his name and fortune, and leave. We need to start an alumni club for successful Duer's to remember where they came from and to keep this forum alive for the future stars.

[rawstory]

10. haha...thanks

if we make money we'll start giving more to DU. DU is our biggest resource for stories, hands down. but i need to get past this **ahem** life of making $3/hour ;) haha...maybe this will do it.

[Joanne98]

15. We'll remember you said that.

:)

[punpirate]

5. The main argument...

... is in the time period when one can make up regular drills with substitute drills. The Bushies will counter that it's just a technicality, and that it was okay with his superiors--they signed the order to send him to Alabama (but no one's been able to find any document that sends him back to Texas).

What I think ought to hammered on is that Bush did not just miss "a" flight physical. He failed to take any more for the rest of his time in the ANG and that is actionable under military regulations. For his superiors to have ignored not only one, but two infractions indicates collusion.

Cheers.

[napi21]

9. I thought I remembered some officer gave him permission to do his duty

in ALA? Please don't get me wwrong here. I want this idiot to be plastered to the wall! But the AWOL from Tx doesn't fly if he did get some letter authorizing him to serve in ALA. It always seemed to me that the missing records were that nobody from ALA remembered him being there.

[punpirate]

11. Yes, his superiors signed off on his request...

... which I mentioned. But, he was supposed to be there for the campaign he was working on, and no orders sending him back to Texas have surfaced. He simply showed up, months later, and only after Texas ANG sent him orders to appear.

But, the real issue is the physicals, regardless of what Bush himself says about it--it's a failure to perform one's duty, and that's an offense punishable by courts-martial. If one is on flying status, it's part of one duties. One doesn't simply to decide to stop flying. One must request removal from flying status, and that usually requires a board hearing.

A lot of people say the issue was cocaine. M'self, I think something happened before his physical that scared the piss out of him. If the press were really curious, and they aren't, I'll bet they'd find something of interest in the old maintenance and equipment records at Ellington.

Cheers.

[napi21]

14. Interesting. I never thought of that.

I don't know anything about military requirements, as you do. It makes sense to me that a hearing would be required though, since it costs over $1M to train a pilot. That has always bothered me too. Why doesn't someone ask the shrub how he feels he was fair to his country when they invested all that money in him and he just (his words) changed his mind and decided to go to school!

[Media_Lies_Daily]

6. Two points....

1. Lawrence J. Korb is considered to be extremely credible, and completely unassailable when he takes a position on any issue;

2. This is starting to confirm my suspicions of a growing split between the old Conservative branch of the GOP, and the Neocons.

[liveoaktx]

13. Video clip from (with my comments) from Meet the Press

Awol Bush

[vetwife]

17. A normal person cannot make up AWOL

You do jail time/hospital or pay deduction and busted in rank, but being AWOL you can still get an HONORABLE discharge. My husband was AWOL 25 days and it showed on his DD214
and he got disciplanry action and he had fufilled his duty in Nam but he was in Germany and was messed up in the head. Well they gave him what is called an Article 15 which cost him a lot of money. Pay deduction. Those for days missed.He was also sent to sick bay for his Trauma. Days lost under Article 10USC972.CLEARLY stated on the Separation notice. If Bush produced his DD214 if Daddy had not paid it off it would clearly show he was gone. My husband was not gone 30 days which means, technically he was not AWOL. He was just screwed up after fighting in Nam and disappeared for 25 days in Germany. He was decorated, he fought, he served and could not make up that time but he had to face disciplinary action which proved he had a service connection disability and should have been discharged on medical but it took over 25 years to prove this. This was the Army and he was an elisted man with the 101st. Yeah combat vets are mad because what applied to them did not apply to Chickenhawk Bush. Traumatized and wounded is not the same as drunk and doped up and derelect of duty.It is my understanding that if you go AWOL and according to my husband anytime you do not have written authorization to be gone, you are AWOL, be it 30 days or not, maybe things have changed but anyway stateside they would send your Butt to Nam for regular folks like the other poster said happened to his friend.

[DemoTex]

18. My piece from 2/21/04: "George W. Bush's Bright Shining Lies"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/04/02/21_lies.html

[zaj]

19. I'm told that a Guardsman CAN'T be AWOL... only active duty... true?

[seabeyond]

20. now is this the same time he was in houston hospital

doing service work for some project cause he was found with drugs adn daddy got judge to not put on record

[Doctor_J]

21. More than 30 days = deserter

I am waiting for Big Media to apologoze to Michael Moore, who correctly called * a deserter/