"Memories Place Bush in Alabama if Records Don't"

From yesterday's Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

The search for proof that young Lt. George W. Bush worked weekends at an Air Force base in Montgomery, 32 years ago has taken on a strange, forensic quality.

Dusty dental records and copies of old pay stubs provided by the White House are the only hard evidence that the future president, then 26, was ever there. But journalists have interviewed scores of Alabama Air National Guard pilots, navigators and mechanics from the period and have found few, if any, who can remember seeing him there — if they can remember at all.

One who said he does remember is Roswell businessman John Calhoun, 69. A retired officer of the Alabama Air National Guard and co-owner of Industrial Coatings Alliance Group, Calhoun stepped forward this week to say he could vouch for the president's claims that he served with a Montgomery guard unit to fulfill his military obligation. Bush moved to Alabama to work on the unsuccessful 1972 U.S. Senate campaign of Winton "Red" Blount Jr.

"The truth is George Bush came to Alabama. He asked for weekend drills with us. He was assigned to me," said Calhoun, who was in Florida on Friday for this weekend's Daytona 500 festivities.

Calhoun said he saw Bush sign in at the 187th Tactical Reconnaissance Group in Montgomery eight to 10 times for roughly eight hours at a time from May to October 1972.

"He showed up. He sat in my office. He signed in," Calhoun said. "He was very determined to be there. He was in uniform and he did what he was supposed to do."

Calhoun recalled he thought the young lieutenant was "fairly low key" though Bush told him he had been "working day and night" on Blount's Senate campaign. Calhoun asked Bush if he had political ambition. "He said, 'I don't know. Maybe.' "

Calhoun said he sometimes grabbed a sandwich with Bush in the snack bar. Other times, the young pilot would sit on a couch and read flight magazines and training manuals.

The last time he saw Bush was in Calhoun's office in 1972.

"I never talked to George Bush since the last day he was in my office," said Calhoun, who voted for Bush in 2000. "And I have never spoken to anyone in the White House about it." ....

Allow me to ask again:

So, Faithful Reader, do you think mainstream media will ever demand every daily d-e-t-a-i-l of Lt. John Kerry's stint in the Navy the way it has demanded every daily d-e-t-a-i-l of Lt. George W. Bush's stint in the Air National Guard?

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sat. 02/14/04 08:26:03 AM
Categorized as George W. Bush & Media & Political.