Note:
This is an incomplete draft for comment and is part of The AWOL Project, a series of online articles
examining the military records of George W. Bush from the perspective of the
Federal statutes, Department of Defense (DoD) regulations, and Air Force
policies and procedures concerning that military service.
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Anyone who examines the documents related to George W. Bush’s military service is struck by the fact that they appear to be about two different people. For the first four years of his six year Military Service Obligation, Bush appears to have been a “model” Guardsman. Then suddenly, in his last two years, he stops showing up for mandatory drills and instruction, tries to get a permanent transfer to an Alabama “paper unit” which will relieve him of all obligations to train, and allow his flight status to be revoked.
And at the same time that Bush stops showing up in Texas, his signature changes.
At the right of this page are all of the pre-May, 1972 Bush signatures found in the documents released by the White House in February that USA posted in its “subject files”. These signatures all share one characteristic; the way in which the capital “G” is formed. The bottom loop is always “angled”.
But in the documents dated May 1972 and after, that signature changes. In fact, there appear to be two different “new” signatures---those that appear on documents that do not have the “normal” characteristics” of official military documents, and those that appear on “official” looking documents.
And to makes things even more interesting, there are two copies of the same document with significantly different signatures. One, that apparently came from the files kept in Texas, appears to have a genuine signature. The second, which was released by the National Personnel Record Center in 2000 and 2004, has a significantly different signature.
Taken as a whole, the anomalies that these signatures represent, when combined with the anomalies found in the documents they occur on, suggest that Bush was being “volunteered” by others to request a transfer, perform substitute training, and resign entirely from the Texas Air National Guard.
There are two documents in the Bush files which appear to be direct communications between George W. Bush and the military. Neither of these appear in “correct” military format, and the signatures on both are similar, and distinctly different from other signatures that occur in the Bush documents.
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The first is Bush’s request to perform “equivalent duty” with the 187th Tac Recon Group in Alabama, dated September 5, 1972. Rather than a full name signature, however, all that appears on this document is Bush’s first name.
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The second is undated, but based on contextual evidence, can be dated some time after May 1, 1974. This is Bush’s request made to ARPC for his complete severance from all military responsibility.
Both of these signatures show a far larger “upper loop” on the “G” than appears on the pre-1972 signatures, a final “e” that is raised well above the previous “g” that does not appear on earlier signatures, and other anomalies.
Three of remaining four signatures which appear on documents that conform to military standards have common characteristics not found on the “old” signatures.
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The first signature, dated May 24, 1972 is from the form used by Bush to request a transfer to the 9921st Air Reserve Squadron in Alabama. The lower loop on the capital “G” does not have the characteristic “angle” found in “old” Bush signatures.
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(What appears to be evidence of an “angle” in the copy above, when blown up, is clearly a remnant of the copying process.)
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The second signature is found on Bush’s “Statement of Counselling”, dated July 30, 1973, in which he acknowledges his responsibility to find a unit with which to train when he leaves Texas to attend Harvard Business School. Again, we see that there is no angle in the lower loop of the “G”.
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The third signature occurs on one of the two copies of Bush’s request for a discharge from TXANG, dated September 5, 1973. This signature bears the “no lower loop angle on the “G” characteristic of the previous two signatures.
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The fourth signature appears on another copy of the same discharge request form, and the signature would, supposedly, have been created at the same time as the signature directly above. But this signature has the characteristic “angled bottom loop” found in the “old” Bush signatures.
Of particular note is that all four of these signatures include a much longer “tail” at the end of “Bush” than does all but one of the “old” signatures---indeed, this signature (found of page 7 of the School Training file) bears more of a resemblance to the first three “official document” signatures than it does to the other “old” signatures.
Most of the documents on which these signatures occur contain a number of anomalies that raise further questions about the provenance of the signatures.
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There are numerous anomalies on the form used by Bush to request a transfer to the 9921st Air Reserve Squadron in Alabama which indicate that Bush was trying to get into a unit where he would never have to train, and for which he was ineligible. (These anomalies are more fully discussed in The Transfer Scam.)
Rather than provide a “permanent mailing address” where Bush could be contacted, he provides the address of his employer, the campaign firm of Allison and Trevalen, but does not indicate that this is a work address. According to other documents, Bush had “cleared the base” (i.e. took all of his belongings from Ellington Air Force base where his unit, the 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, was located) on May 15, 1972.
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In two separate entries, the document misidentifies Bush’s Air Force Specialty Code.
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Instead of providing the AFSC for an F102 pilot (1125D), he uses an AFSC for a pilot who flew planes that no longer were being in any component of the United States Air Force (1125B).
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And despite the specific instructions that appear on the form itself, Bush does not include his own “training category”, although he does include that of the 9921st. (Bush’s training category was “A”, which signaled that he was required to train at least one weekend per month, plus 15 days per year. Members of category “G” training units were not required to train at all.)
These various anomalies strongly suggest that someone who understood the minutiae of Air Force policies and procedures deliberately provided incomplete and incorrect information on the form itself in order to facilitate the transfer to the 9921st Air Reserve Squadron. The person most likely to understand these details would have been Rufus Martin, the personnel officer for the 147th Fighter Interceptor Group, of which the 111th FIS was a part. In 2000, Martin acknowledged that it was he who suggested that Bush apply to the 9921st. Martin also admitted at that time that he (Martin) knew that Bush was ineligible for that unit, but that it was “worth a try.”
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The first thing that one notices about Bush’s request to perform substitute training with the 187th Tac. Recon. Group in Alabama is that it is clearly not an “official” document (see “resignation letter” below for a “conforming” document). The placement and format of the date is wrong, and the format of the line below the signature is also wrong.
The second thing one notices, of course, is that Bush does not provide a full signature; only the first name appears.
But there is another anomaly as well. This letter is dated September 5, 1972, the same day as that on which Bobby Hodges, commander of the 147th Fighter Interceptor Group, issued written orders removing Bush from flight status effective August 1, 1972.
Yet Killian, who was responsible for Bush’s training, and who clearly had previously insisted that Bush perform his required training (see The Training Myth), immediately indorsed Bush’s request for substitute training the very next day, without conditions. Not only does this indicate extremely fast mail service between Alabama and a post office box in Houston Texas that other documents indicate was the mailing address for the entire 147th Fighter Inteceptor Group, it also suggests that Killian did not care about Bush’s loss of flight status.
But Killian was responsible for maintaining the readiness of the 111th FIS, and that meant that all of his pilots had to be on flight status. It is highly unlikely that Killian would have immediately indorsed this request under these circumstances unless there was a good reason not to make inquiries of Bush regarding his flight status.
Additionally, a number of other factors suggest that Bush himself may not have requested this training, not the least of which is the fact that he never showed up for the training that was authorized upon his request. Moreover, there has never been any suggestion that Bush contacted anyone at the 187th in advance of his formal request for authorization of substitute training. Such a contact, even a phone call, to determine in what training opportunities would be available would make a great deal of sense, especially since Bush was already in Alabama. This failure to make advance contact with the 187th is demonstrated by the fact that Bush requested an opportunity to do substitute training for September with too little advance for that training to be authorized by the Alabama Air National Guard.
The member was required to sign a form acknowledging his obligations, and the fact that counseling had taken place. The Air Reserve Forces Personnel Manual shows that the same form was used to provide the certification of “satisfactory participation.”
On the copy of this form released by the White House, the date which accompanies Bush’s signature is July 30, 1973, it was not until 45 days later, September 13, 1973, that Bush’s participation is certified as satisfactory. Yet July 30 was the last day on which Bush was credited with any duty or training as a member of the Texas Air National Guard.
Other documents raise questions about the July 30 date on this document. Bush should have notified TXANG that he would be attending Harvard Business School that fall as soon as he had made that decision, and it is highly doubtful that Harvard allowed those it had accepted to wait until the end of July to make that decision. Moreover, Bush’s payroll documents show undeniable proof that Bush planned to not be in Texas in September 1973 weeks before July 30.
Bush is credited with performing substitute training on July 18 and 19 that was applied on the payroll records toward mandatory unit training to be held at Ellington Air Force Base on September 22 and 23. That substitute training would have had to be approved by a superior officer, and would require Bush to explain why he could not show up to train with his unit as required.
The most logical explanation for what appears on the payroll records is that Bush notified TXANG that he would be attending classes at Harvard in the fall, and arranged to do substitute training in advance after receiving the counseling that was required. But if Bush received his “counseling” well before July 30, why is the “statement” dated July 30, and why does it take another 45 days to certify his performance?
One possible explanation is that the document was not signed by Bush on July 30th, but was typed sometime after Bush’s “resignation” to show that TXANG had fulfilled its obligations and then signed and backdated to Bush’s last day of service by someone other than Bush.
The second version contains a different signature, one that appears to be similar to the one on the July 30, 1973 “Statement of Counseling” (see above.). On this version, rather than the signature of Jerry Killian, the word “signed” is stamped on the letter. (Based solely on the clarity of the lettering, this second copy appears to be the original, with the copy including two signatures a carbon.)
As with the approval to perform equivalent training, once
again we have a request from Bush that is (apparently)
In fact it appears that Killian’s indorsement was typed at the exact same time by the exact same typewriter as Bush’s resignation itself. The margins are the same, the lines are all parallel, and the placement of the date is precisely he same.
There is considerable circumstantial evidence which suggests that Bush was not in Texas on September 5, 1973, not the least of which is that classes began at Harvard Business School on September 11. Moreover, Bush had not shown up for training at Ellington Air Force Base for over a month prior to September 5, and had, in fact, performed substitute training in July rather than attend the training scheduled for the weekend of August 18 and 19 with his unit.
The fact that two different dates appear on this document, but that the entire document appears to have been typed at the same time, raises very serious questions about its origins. It is extremely unlikely that the document was typed in the presence of both Bush and Killian, otherwise the dates would most likely be the same. Yet, whoever typed it assumed that Jerry Killian would approve of Bush’s resignation on the very next day.
One possible explanation is that someone other than Bush decided that it was time for him to resign, typed the letter, signed it for Bush and stamped it “signed” for Killian. A second copy was sent to Bush, who then signed it, and this copy being returned to TXANG, Killian then affixed his signature.
The “Request for Discharge Information”
A recently released document—an official form dated November 8, 1974, in which Bush requests a complete discharge from the US Armed Forces--suggests that this letter is genuine.
