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Dod seeks bush guard files { February 10 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A26843-2004Feb9?language=printerhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A26843-2004Feb9?language=printer
Defense Dept. Seeks Bush's Guard File
By Lois Romano
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 10, 2004; Page A07
The Defense Department has requested that President Bush's payroll records from his service in the National Guard be sent to Washington from a DOD archive in Colorado, to ascertain whether they can be released to news organizations and public interest groups that have formally requested them in recent days, according to DOD officials.
Bush, in an interview shown Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," said he would release all his records, including pay stubs, to put to rest political suggestions that he may not have fulfilled his duty near the end of his Guard service, from May 1972 to May 1973. The president also suggested there might not be anything in the records that has not already been in the public domain.
"I mean, people have been looking for these files for a long period of time, trust me, and starting in the 1994 campaign for [Texas] governor," Bush said. "And I can assure you in the year 2000 people were looking for those files as well."
Asked in the interview whether he would authorize release of his Guard records, the president said, "Yes, absolutely."
Bush enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard in 1968, two weeks before graduating from Yale and at the height of the Vietnam War.
At issue is a 12-month period, commencing in May 1972, when Bush moved to Alabama to work on a senatorial campaign. He received permission to transfer to an Alabama unit and was instructed to report to duty there. There is no definitive evidence in his file that he reported to the Alabama unit to perform drills; Bush has said he did report and perform drills.
Bush's personnel records also are vague on what he did in the Texas Guard after returning to Houston after the Senate election he worked on. The first date in the records for 1973 is May 29, when they indicate he attended drills. The records show he attended drills at least 18 times between May 29 and July 30.
In his annual evaluation, covering the period of May 1972 to April 1973, Lt. Col. William D. Harris wrote that he could not evaluate Bush because "he has not been observed" in Houston. Bush left the Guard in October 1973 to attend Harvard Business School.
Bush's service record was explored by the Democrats and the media in 2000 but received new attention recently, when Democratic National Committee Chairman Terence R. McAuliffe called Bush "AWOL" -- absent without leave -- during his time in Alabama.
According to military experts familiar with National Guard records, there are two documents that could indicate whether Bush reported for drills during that year. One is an annual summary of his points, the quantitative measure of his service. The summary includes each date he reported for a drill and how many points he received toward his annual requirement.
His official personnel record, obtained by The Post in 2000, does not include a summary of service for the time in Alabama. There is a sheet, where the name has been torn off, that includes dates for that period, but there is no way to confirm it refers to Bush because his Social Security number has been redacted. Also, no one who served in Bush's Alabama unit at that time has come forward, despite years of publicity on the subject. The brigadier general Bush was to report to in Alabama has said he has no recollection of Bush's doing so.
The other documents that should still be available are Bush's payroll records, which would show what drills Bush was compensated for during that period. Officials said yesterday that the DOD in Washington would review the master copy of Bush's payroll records, which have been stored on microfiche for 30 years at the Defense Finance and Accounting Service in Denver.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan yesterday told reporters that everything was made available during the 2000 campaign. "I think that one of the things you can look at that will help address these questions is the annual retirement point summaries . . . They show that the president fulfilled his duties, and that is why he was honorably discharged," he said.
McClellan said that in 2000, the Bush campaign was informed by the Texas National Guard that "they did not have them. Obviously, if there's anything additional, we'll keep you posted."
Staff writer Dana Milbank and researcher Lucy Shackelford contributed to this report.
© 2004 The Washington Post Company
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