AWOL getting more press

To: Lois Romano, Washington Post Reporter
From: Robert E. Reynolds
Date: February 3, 2004
Re: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A7372-2004Feb2


...Since the original challenges in 2000 by Bob Kerrey, Daniel Inouye, and Max Cleland more records have become available. One site for this is http://users.cis.net/coldfeet/document.htm

It has a lot of the documents in dispute. Two in particular may be of help to you:

http://users.cis.net/coldfeet/doc10.gif
http://users.cis.net/coldfeet/doc14.gif

These are the official military documents relating to his duty and base assignments. They show that despite his claims that he remembers serving in Alabama he never served in any unit other than the one at Ellington AFB.

doc. 10 is a page from his Officer Personnel record. It is very important since it goes with the officer on any assignment, permanent or temporary. So the claims by Bush and by his spokespersons have no authenticity according to his official records. It may be why in 2000 they refused to release his records.

It is also important for another reason. When it was closed out you will note that he was not given any credits for service in 1973. This is important because he claims that he performed such service and a "document" has been provided that supposedly shows credits for such service. But there is a dispute about the document. "George" magazine printed the document with Bush's name on it, but subsequently it was determined that either they or the person providing it to them added that name and the name was not on the source document. Here are two links to those documents:

http://users.cis.net/coldfeet/doc16.gif
http://users.cis.net/coldfeet/doc99.gif

If you run a search you find that reservists and national guardsmen today are being picked up for AWOL and desertion and being punished for it. These are just everyday folks filling for the most part routine slots.

Bush, on the other hand, received a million dollars worth of flight training and was assigned as fighter pilot to an ANG unit assigned important responsibilities in the air defense of the continental United States. Just as today, there was a war going on then and the regular services were being deployed overseas. The ANG and AF Reserve units had key responsibilities for air defense. So failure to perform ones duty and complete ones military obligation is not something to be dismissed as missing a meeting and making it up later.

His official records indicate that he stopped his service sometime before May of 1972 , two years before the end of his obligation to the Ready Reserve. There is no disputing that. That he received an honorable discharge is not a testament to his honorable service, but rather one that indicates that he received preferential treatment not available to those being charged with AWOL and desertion today.

As an AF veteran and one that also served in the reserves I can assure you that I could not have just stopped showing up, and I could not have skipped meeting and made them up later. I would have been charged under the Uniform Code of Military Justice either as AWOL (failure to report for duty) or for Desertion (failure to report for duty over 30 days). Ask any veteran and they will tell you the same.
  full article