Arthur Stone wrote #10:

Trust me Amy.

Buwahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Joining the Texas Air National Guard at the height of the Vietnam conflict & failing to fulfill his entire commitment is dodging the draft.

90% of young Americans of the time, never served in Vietnam. If one wanted guaranteed avoidance of serving in combat, joining the Air National Guard as a fighter pilot would hardly be a smart move. W. Bush joined the Guard for a 6-year term. If you are drafted, you only had to serve 2 years. Pilots from the unit that he joined were being sent to Vietnam.

Letter by Col. William Campenni Ret. published in the Washington Times:

There was one big exception to this abusive use of the Guard to avoid the draft, and that was for those who wanted to fly, as pilots or crew members. Because of the training required, signing up for this duty meant up to 2½ years of active duty for training alone, plus a high probability of mobilization. A fighter-pilot candidate selected by the Guard (such as Lt. Bush and I) would be spending the next two years on active duty going through basic training (six weeks), flight training (one year), survival training (two weeks) and combat crew training for his aircraft (six to nine months), followed by local checkout (up to three more months) before he was even deemed combat-ready. Because the draft was just two years, you sure weren’t getting out of duty being an Air Guard pilot. If the unit to which you were going back was an F-100, you were mobilized for Vietnam. Avoiding service? Yeah, tell that to those guys. The Bush critics do not comprehend the dangers of fighter aviation at any time or place, in Vietnam or at home, when they say other such pilots were risking their lives or even dying while Lt. Bush was in Texas. Our Texas ANG unit lost several planes right there in Houston during Lt. Bush’s tenure, with fatalities. Just strapping on one of those obsolescing F-102s was risking one’s life.

From aerospaceweb:

we have established that the F-102 was serving in combat in Vietnam at the time Bush enlisted to become an F-102 pilot. In fact, pilots from the 147th FIG of the Texas ANG were routinely rotated to Vietnam for combat duty under a program called ”Palace Alert” from 1968 to 1970. Palace Alert was an Air Force program that sent qualified F-102 pilots from the ANG to bases in Europe or southeast Asia for periods of three to six months for frontline duty. Fred Bradley, a friend of Bush’s who was also serving in the Texas ANG, reported that he and Bush inquired about participating in the Palace Alert program. However, the two were told by a superior, MAJ Maurice Udell, that they were not yet qualified since they were still in training and did not have the 500 hours of flight experience required. Furthermore, ANG veteran COL William Campenni, who was a fellow pilot in the 111th FIS at the time, told the Washington Times that Palace Alert was winding down and not accepting new applicants.

As he was completing training and being certified as a qualified F-102 pilot, Bush’s squadron was a likely candidate to be rotated to Vietnam. However, the F-102 was built for a type of air combat that wasn’t seen during that conflict, and the plane was withdrawn from southeast Asia in December 1969. The F-102 was instead returned to its primary role of providing air defense for the United States. In addition, the mission of Ellington AFB, where Bush was stationed, was also changing from air defense alert to training all F-102 pilots in the US for Air National Guard duty. Lt. Bush remained in the ANG as a certified F-102 pilot who participated in frequent drills and alerts through April of 1972. … By this time, the 147th Fighter Wing was also beginning to transition from the F-102 to the F-101F, an updated version of the F-101B used primarily for air defense patrols. Furthermore, the war in Vietnam was nearing its end and the US was withdrawing its forces from the theater. Air Force personnel returning to the US created a glut of active-duty pilots, and there were not enough aircraft available to accommodate all of the qualified USAF and ANG pilots. Since USAF personnel had priority for the billets available, many of the Air National Guard pilots whose enlistments were nearly complete requested early release. The ANG was eager to fulfill these requests because there was not enough time to retrain F-102 pilots to operate new aircraft before their enlistments were up anyway. Bush was one of those forced out by the transition, and he was honorably discharged as a first lieutenant in October 1973, eight months before his six-year enlistment was complete. Bush had approximately 600 flight hours by the time he completed his military service.

~~~

While Bush did not see combat in Vietnam, it is also obvious that he was not seeking a way to avoid the risk of being sent to Vietnam. At the time he was training to be an F102 pilot, ANG units and that aircraft type were based in Vietnam.

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One can’t expect an a’patriot like AS to know that the Guard can be called up on active duty, Mike. He’s just not that bright a lightbulb. But hey… they don’t allow recruiters on the campus. How the heck would he know, unless it was written into some curriculum he’s got to teach.

He only demeans the Guard because GWB chose that branch. Had he gone Navy, he’d be saying it was to be on a destroyer, far away from the Vietnam front lines.

But it means nothing to AS to spit on the entire Guard of those years if it allows him to demean the POTUS. It’s all about hating Bush, combined with a healthy dose of brain damage from his liberal youth… But considering he’s probably still living the sheltered campus life, you can’t expect much of anything from him but contorted academics and attitudes.

Anal self-perceived scholars… oh but if they knew even a thimblefull of what they believe they know.

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Mike chimed in:

“Arthur” would like to draw attention once again to the fact that HE has NEVER served his country in any way, shape or form. Like a good liberal, he enjoys the fruits of our freedoms hard won by others and only grudgingly pays the absolute minimum of taxes he can get away with.

Let me dry my eyes Mike.

Bye the bye. Being a Campus Republican and working to elect Republicans to state and even national office is not exactly serving one’s country in any way, shape or form.

At least not yet.

How do you know about my taxes Mike?

Wait. You don’t. That would be just another in a seemingly endless flights of reactionary fantasy you seem powerless over.

But thanks for your kind thoughts.

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“Arthur” would like to draw attention once again to the fact that HE has NEVER served his country in any way, shape or form. Like a good liberal, he enjoys the fruits of our freedoms hard won by others and only grudgingly pays the absolute minimum of taxes he can get away with.

As for Bush’s Guard service, like so many currently serving in the Guard in Iraq, he could have been called up at any time.

Which is a darn sight more than you could say about “Arthur” and his draft dodging friends.

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Heh. Heh.

Navy, Coast Guard. Fine.

Enlisting in the National Guard? In 1968? That was, as we all knew, avoiding the war.

But thanks for playing.

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I see the less-than-informed, and always boring AS, weighed in on the “draft dodger” bit… along with some psychotic notion that service in the Guard is draft dodging. Also still laboring under the assumption that the service credit points were sufficient for honorable discharge is still some military crime.

But the desperate still continue to seek the gullible sheeple to which they can continue to spread their lies.

Hard to be a draft dodger when you enlist in the Guard prior to the draft lottery, and had been subject to the draft for at least two years prior. Had GWB no enlisted voluntarily, he wouldn’t had to have served at all, since he had high lottery numbers. But he chose to serve.

Then again, according to the Seattle Marxist spokesperson’s definition, anyone who went into any of the military branches that weren’t seeing front line action… i.e. Navy, Coast Guard, Nat’l Guard, etal…. were draft dodgers.

I suggest if AS wants to see what a draft dodger would look like, he should merely look in the mirror. AS is one of those who constantly asks what his country can do for *him*… so if ever called to serve, he’d be hiding out anywhere he could to dodge the responsibility… the class room, or another country.

Trust me Amy…

ROTFLMAO! As soon as that cow lands from jumping over the moon…. I wouldn’t trust AS with the task of sharpening a pencil.

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Amy Proctor typed:

‘Yay, um, arthurstone, you might want to check your history. Bush wasn’t a draft dodger, (snip)’

Trust me Amy. Joining the Texas Air National Guard at the height of the Vietnam conflict & failing to fulfill his entire commitment is dodging the draft. There was a real live shooting war going on and I’m just a little surprised the President didn’t feel the need to go help that ‘young Democracy’ in Southeast Asia back in ’68.

Actually I’m not surprised at all.

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a funny thought just popped into my head…. seeing as how most people get their news from the msm and don’t use the internets resources thye have no idea what is really going on. they see what cnn, msn and such say about the war, about bush, mccain and they buy it because thats what they see and hear. they are having obama’s greatness remmed intot he spoona nd fed to them. they don’t realize all the real reporting other outlets have. so when they do their polls and they are calling all these idiots they are getting all these people who watch cnn and get their news from nowhere else. what got me thinking about this was the headline on drudge about the detroit mayor going to jail. my husband asked me what happened, so i told him and added that he really needed to keep up on things. he said, and you will love this, i watch cnn. that should say it all. he always asks me how i fing=d stuff out and i tell him that i get most of my news online because the rest is fluff.

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“Mad Cow Terrorist”

That’s kinda funny. Fifteen years ago those words would not have made any sense together… not that they really do now.

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Yay, um, arthurstone, you might want to check your history. Bush wasn’t a draft dodger, that was Clinton. Remember the Dan Rather forgeries? But even if Bush were a draft dodger, he’d still have more military experience than either Clinton or Obama and the bottom line is that troops respect him more than either of them, too.

I have video, wordsmith, of the President’s speech to troops in Seoul at the Yongsan army base. I stayed there last month for about a week and a half. Great post.

Here’s a funny fact! I have a Korean friend who tells me college kids take government and democracy classes and often times they have to participate in civil protests whether they want to or not in order to experience that form of democracy. No kidding, many of the protesters did it for college credit, not because they believe in it!

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