NOTE: THIS IS A WORKING DRAFT FOR COMMENT, AND IS
PART OF THE AWOL PROJECT, A LARGE SERIES OF ARTICLES
EXAMINING BUSH’S MILITARY RECORDS WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF THE FEDERAL STATUTES,
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE REGULATIONS, AND AIR FORCE POLICIES AND PROCEDURES OF
THAT ERA.
COMMENTS, CORRECTIONS, AND
SUGGESTIONS FOR REVISIONS SHOULD BE DIRECTED TO awol@glcq.com.
On February 10, 2004, the White House released George W Bush’s
quarterly payroll summaries for his last year in the Texas Air National Guard,
claiming that they proved that Bush had “fulfilled his duties” as a member of
the US Armed Forces. However, An examination
of these records within the context of laws and policies of that time reveals
that at least half (and as much as two thirds) of the pay and “points”
credited toward Bush’s mandatory monthly training were fraudulent. When one deducts these fraudulent points
from Bush’s records, Bush does not achieve the minimum number of points
under the White House’s own (erroneous) criteria.
It
is likely that the White House is unaware of what the payroll records
reveal, because the most damning information is buried in lines of
“incomprehensible” data found at the bottom of the payroll reports. This article breaks that code, and shows
that Bush repeatedly claimed credit and pay for performing “substitute
training” for mandatory monthly drills with his unit that was well outside
the time limits set for “substitute training.” And although he was required to get advance
authorization for all training, the public record shows that Bush could not have received the
necessary authorizations for “training” performed in Alabama .
CIRCUMSTANCES
BEYOND BUSH’S CONTROL?
TIME LIMITS
FOR SUBSTITUTE TRAINING
FRAUDULENT
PAY AND CREDIT FOR “SUBSTITUTE TRAINING”
PAY AND POINT FRAUD, AND THE WHITE HOUSE CRITERIA FOR
“SATISFACTORY PARTICIPATION”
THE QUESTION OF UNAUTHORIZED TRAINING
The
“Substitute Training” for March UTAs
The “Substitute
Training” for January and February UTAs
The Statements
of Alabama Officials
APPENDIX 1: THE
PURPOSE OF “UNIT TRAINING”, AND “SUBSTITUTE TRAINING”
APPENDIX 2:
UNDERSTANDING THE PAYROLL DATA
UNDERSTANDING THE TRANSACTION DATA
LINES
UNDERSTANDING THE
"TRANSACTION INFORMATION"
SECTION
APPENDIX 3 THE PAPER TRAIL FOR NON-EXISTENT TRAINING
APPENDIX 5--ADDITIONAL
OBSERVATIONS FROM THE PAYROLL RECORDS
A
great deal of attention has been paid to the payroll records of George W. Bush
of late. Most of that attention has
been based on whether or not Bush was credited with, and paid for, sufficient
training to meet the requirements of the United States Armed Forces. No
attention has been given to whether or not the “points” and pay were
legitimate.
An
examination of the payroll records, within the context of the laws and policies
concerning pay and credit for mandatory monthly training, shows that up to two
thirds of the payments and points Bush received in his last year as a member of
the Texas Air National Guard (TXANG) were fraudulent.
This
article will explain what the policies were, what the payroll records reveal,
and how it was impossible for Bush to legitimately receive the credit and pay
for the “training” he supposed performed.
It will also explore the ways in which these payroll records interface
both with other documents in the Bush files and with public statements made by
individuals who were involved in this controversy, and demonstrate how there is
only one conclusion to be drawn from these records.
George
W. Bush committed fraud in claiming credit and pay for most of the “training”
he supposedly did in his last twelve months as a member of the Air National
Guard.
Under
Federal statutes[1], Department
of Defense regulations, and Air Force policy, all Air National Guard (ANG) units
were required to hold scheduled drills (Unit Training Assemblies or UTAs)
once weekend each month. Each weekend
consisted of four, four-hour UTAs, two on Saturday and two on Sunday. (See Appendix 1:
The Purpose of “Unit Training” and “Substitute Training”)
From CFR Title 32,
Chapter 101 Sec 3(b)
As a pilot with a six year “Military Service Obligation” (MSO) George W. Bush was required by law to attend at least 90% of these training weekends, or perform authorized “substitute training.” Failure to participate in the required training would result in Bush losing his draft deferment, and being required to go on active duty for up to 24 months.
(For
a fully referenced, footnoted, and detailed explanation of Bush’s attendance
obligations as a member of the Air National Guard, see BUSH'S
ATTENDANCE OBLIGATIONS AS A MEMBER OF THE US MILITARY. )
From AFM 35-3, Chapter
2, Para 2-22(b)
The
two types of “substitute training” were
“Equivalent Training” (EQT), which could be authorized only if an
ANG member was on active duty at the time of a scheduled UTA, and
“Appropriate Duty” (APDY), which could be authorized “when absence is from
cause beyond their control, such as illness or other personal hardship”.[2]
AFM 35-3 Table 16-3 “Authorizing
and Performing APDY or EQT…”
From AFM 35-3
Chapter 20, Para. 8
The
payroll records show that, during his last year as a member of TXANG, Bush
missed 2/3 of his mandatory UTAs, and performed substitute duty instead. These records also show that Bush was not on
active duty at any time when mandatory training was scheduled. Thus, Bush must have claimed that
circumstances beyond his control prevented him from attending eight of his last
twelve mandatory training weekends.
Based
on claims made by the White House, “substitute training” was performed in
Alabama for six of the eight weekends Bush failed to attend mandatory weekend
training with his TXANG unit. Because
UTAs were designed to ensure that Air National Guard units could function as
units if called to active duty (see Appendix 1), Bush had to have claimed that “circumstances
beyond his control” prevented him from performing the “substitute training”
with his own unit.
Yet
there is no known reason why Bush was unable to attend UTAs with his TXANG unit
for five months (December 1972, and January, February, March and August,
1973). Nor is there any known reason
why Bush needed to perform “substitute training” in Alabama for four of those
five months. Most significantly, there
is no known reason why Bush needed to perform substitute training in Alabama in
January 1973 for UTAs with his TXANG unit that were scheduled for February and
March.
Without
a good reason for missing his mandatory monthly training, Bush could not
receive prior authorization to perform “substitute training”. Table 1 shows the extent to which there are
serious questions with regard to the need for Bush to perform “substitute
training”.
Table 1: Possible explanations for Performance
of substitute training Date of scheduled UTA Date of training credited
toward UTA Substitute Training? Where White House Claims
“substitute training” Was Done Possible Reason for
Substitute Training 10/14/72 10/28/72 Yes Alabama Working on a Campaign 11/04/72 11/11/72 Yes Alabama Working on a Campaign 12/02/72 11/13/72 Yes Alabama ???? 01/13/73 01/04/73 Yes Alabama ???? 02/10/73 01/06/73 Yes Alabama ???? 03/10/73 01/09/73 Yes Alabama ???? 04/07/73 04/07/73 ???* ???? ???? 05/19/73 05/19/73 NO Not Applicable Not Applicable 06/23/73 06/23/73 NO Not Applicable Not Applicable 07/21/73 07/21/73 NO Not Applicable Not Applicable 08/18/73 07/16/73 Yes Texas ???? 09/22/73 07/18/73 Yes Texas Classes at Harvard *
Although Bush is credited with UTA performance on the date of his
scheduled UTA, Bush's officers claim that he was "not
observed" at Ellington AFB on these dates. See Appendix
4
Except from Bush’s Discharge Form
dated 10-1-73
We
also know that the problem was not a sudden illness or other emergency, because
the “substitute training” for these
five months was performed before the dates for which the UTAs were
scheduled. And although it is possible
that Bush had “things to do” on the scheduled UTA weekends in December, 1972
and January, February and March, 1973, there is no explanation why Bush did not
perform “substitute training” with his own unit for those months, rather than
“train” in Alabama.
In
addition to limitations on the reasons why “substitute training” could be
authorized, there were also restrictions on when “substitute training” could be
performed.
Detail from AFM 35-3 Table 16-3
Despite
this restriction, more than 60% of the training credited as “substitute training”
for UTAs was done more than 15 days before “the regularly scheduled UTA”..
An
examination of the payroll transaction data shows that, of the 48 UTA periods
for which Bush received credit, at least 32 were for “substitute training”, and
at least 20 of these periods of training were performed more than 15 days in
advance of the scheduled UTA, in violation of Air Force Policy. (See Appendix
2: Understanding the Payroll Data
for an explanation of how the payroll data reveals this information.)
Table
2 compares the dates on which the payroll data shows that TXANG UTA weekends
were scheduled for Bush’s unit in TXANG, and the first of two consecutive days[4] on which “substitute training” was
supposedly performed. (Each weekend
consisted of four UTAs.)
TABLE 2: UTA Weekend Scheduled, and Date Training
was “Performed” Date of scheduled UTA weekend First day of training credited
toward UTA Number of days training was
performed in advance 10/14/72 10/28/72 -14* 11/04/72 11/11/72 -7* 12/02/72 11/13/72 19 01/13/73 01/04/73 9 02/10/73 01/06/73 35 03/10/73 01/09/73 60 04/07/73 04/07/73 0 05/19/73 05/19/73 0 06/23/73 06/23/73 0 07/21/73 07/21/73 0 08/18/73 07/16/73 33 09/22/73 07/18/73 66 *Bush
performed "substitute training" for Oct. and Nov. 1972 after
the dates of corresponding scheduled UTAs
The
“gray shaded” rows show the times where “ substitute training” was performed
more than 15 days in advanced of the scheduled UTAs. For December, 1972 UTAs,
“substitute training” was performed 19 days in advance, for February,
1973 UTAs, 35 days in advance, for March, 60 days in advance, for August 33
days in advance, and for September, 66 days in advance. (The negative numbers for October and
November 1972 indicate that “substitute training” was supposedly performed 14
days and 7 days after the scheduled UTAs respectively for those months. )
This
is clear and unequivocal evidence of fraud.
Under Air Force policy, Bush could not receive permission for
“substitute training” done more than 15 days in advance of scheduled UTAs. Yet the payroll records show that he was
paid for performing “substitute
training” supposedly performed more than 15 days in advance for five different
months of UTAs, four of which were supposedly performed 33 days or more in
advance.
This
data, however, does not provide any information regarding how the fraud was
accomplished. There are three possible
“explanations”:
1)
The
hierarchies of both the Texas Air National Guard and the Alabama Air National
Guard ignored Air Force policy, and authorized substitute training that would
be done more than 15 days in advance of the corresponding scheduled training.
2)
Fraudulent/forged
documents were created, attesting to the advance approval and performance of
substitute training in Alabama, and submitted for payment to TXANG.
3)
Bush
was paid for substitute training performed in Alabama without the required
documents showing that the training was approved in advance, and certifying
that the training had been accomplished.
Evidence
from the payroll records, as well as other circumstantial evidence, make it
extremely unlikely that the “substitute training” was properly authorized. It is also unlikely that documents were
forged and submitted, because Air Force policies and procedures would have made
detection of the forgeries easy and inevitable.
Thus,
the likeliest explanation for Bush fraudulently receiving pay and credit for
“substitute training” is that TXANG officials arranged to have Bush credited
with training without the necessary authorizations and paperwork.
In
addition to showing that much of the pay and “point credit” that Bush received
was fraudulent, the payroll records also provide compelling evidence that the
“substitute training” was never authorized in advance, and quite possibly never
accomplished.
The
payroll records show that when Bush trained with his TXANG unit, he was always
paid for training within one month of the training being accomplished.
From AFM 35-3 Chapter
20, Para 12
Yet,
Bush was not paid for the “substitute training” he supposedly performed on
October 28 and 29, 1972 until January 4, 1973. On that same date (and with the same check) Bush was also paid
for duty on November 11-14, 1972. It
took over nine weeks (67 days) for Bush to be paid for the October duty, and
over seven weeks (51 days) for the November duty.
Table
3 lists the dates on which UTA or “substitute training” was supposedly
performed, and the dates on which a check was (presumably) cut, for all
“transactions” that can be deciphered in the payroll records, and the number of
days it took Bush to get paid. The
“gray rows” are the dates that Bush supposedly trained in Alabama.
TABLE 3: Training Dates vs Dates Training was
Paid For TRAINING DATE PAY DATE Substitute Training? DAYS UNTIL PAID 03/14/72 04/15/72 YES 31 04/15/72 05/15/72 NO 29 10/28/72 01/04/73 YES 67 11/11/72 01/04/73 YES 53 11/13/72 01/04/73 YES 51 01/04/73 02/15/73 YES 41 01/06/73 02/15/73 YES 39 01/09/73 02/15/73 YES 36 04/07/73 04/30/73 ???* 22 05/19/73 06/06/73 NO 17 06/23/73 07/09/73 NO 15 07/21/73 08/07/73 NO 16 07/16/73 08/15/73 YES 29 07/18/73 08/15/73 YES 27 *See Appendix
4
It
should be noted that “substitute training” itself had minimal impact on the
length of time it took for Bush to get paid.
The average time it took to get paid when training was “performed” at
TXANG on the UTA dates was 20 days.
(This includes UTAs for April, 1972 and those for April-July,
1973.) When “substitute training” was
performed at TXANG for missed UTAs, the average time it took to get paid was 29
days. (These include “substitute
training” performed for UTAs in March, 1972 and July, 1973.
If
the Alabama training had been approved in advance, the same form (a AF Form
40a) would have been used to certify the performance of that training as was
used to perform “substitute training” done at TXANG. The TXANG personnel officer who had to do the payroll would have
been expecting the 40a’s from Alabama, because he would have been involved in
the paperwork authorizing the “substitute training” in Alabama.
Thus,
there does not appear to be any explanation for the delay in pay for the
training that was supposedly done in Alabama other than it not being authorized
in advance. And insofar as at half of
this duty could not be authorized under Air Force policy, it would appear that any
training in Alabama, if actually done at all, was never properly authorized to
begin with.
The
White House claim that Bush “fulfilled his duty” as a member of the United
States Armed Forces is based on a memo written by a former TXANG officer by the
name of Albert Lloyd. The Lloyd memo establishes
the (erroneous[5]) criteria
that Bush required 50 point credits each “retention/retirement year” (R/R
year) [6]
in order for him to have a “satisfactory year.” According to the Lloyd memo, “George W Bush had satisfactory
years for both 72-73 and 73-74 which proves that he completed his military
obligation in a satisfactory manner.”
TABLE 4: Total Points Minus Fraudulent Points Retention/Retirement
Year
